Seanad debates

Wednesday, 12 November 2003

Senator Jim Walsh is keen to have a wider debate on public sector employees, particularly the prison officers and Aer Rianta. Senator Higgins asked for a debate on crime. The Minister had said that there should be no knee-jerk reaction to this matter. The current debate about prisons seems to him to be a knee-jerk reaction. I hope that more details will emerge in coming days. There is a strategy involved on both sides. One hopes that they can get align their strategies to bring matters to a proper conclusion. The Senator quoted the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Pat The Cope Gallagher, who suggested that there should be ex-prisoners on prisoners' visiting committees, only to be shouted down. I thought that a very sensible suggestion, as no one would know more about what goes on in prisons than ex-prisoners. The Senator asked about the Indecon report commissioned by the Government. I hope that we will get a chance, now that the legislative pace is accelerating, to debate the report.

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