Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I ask the Leader to refer to that matter in the course of her reply on today's Order of Business.

Last week I asked for a debate on sentencing policy. There is considerable public disquiet concerning a recent case in Dundalk where a person was convicted of an appalling charge of manslaughter against a German national, yet we discovered after the trial that the named individual had committed a similar offence only ten years earlier. We need a debate on sentencing policy. I am not suggesting that the Executive or the Houses of the Oireachtas should interfere in any way in court policy on this issue, but we need to know from Government its policy on a range of issues, including concurrent sentencing, the length of time offenders serve and the issue between manslaughter and murder, as was referred to by Mr. Justice Carney in a lecture he gave only six months ago. I urge the Leader to organise a debate on this matter.