Feargal Quinn (Independent)

My point relates to Senator Henry's comments. My daughter and I checked into a hotel recently. My daughter requested a non-smoking room, but found there was a strong smell of smoke in her room. She was successful in demanding a change of room, unlike in Senator Henry's case. There is a danger in trying to solve everything by way of legislation as to a large extent the marketplace will solve such problems. If a person experiences a problem in getting a non-smoking room in a hotel, that person will probably not stay in that hotel again.

The Minister has had difficulty with this section because of the exceptions that have been made. If we set something in stone in this legislation, what difficulty would that pose for the Minister in later seeking to strengthen or perhaps even weaken some of the regulations made? Paragraph 47(8)(d) of the principal Act states that a prison is any part of a Garda Síochána station used for the detention of persons. I am not sure what that means, but I would not be surprised that almost any part of a Garda station could be used for the detention of persons and, therefore, an exception to the provision could be made on that basis.

It would be wise to review every piece of legislation every five years to ascertain whether it is working, although that may be unworkable. However, I would like this legislation to be reviewed at a later date to avoid the Minister having to introduce a new Bill. Perhaps there is another way of dealing with changes the Minister may wish to make to some of the regulations. There was a good deal of thinking, adjustment and realignment on this section. I hope it will achieve what the Minister set out to achieve, but if it does not, I would like to think that we could review it at some point in the future without necessarily having to introduce a new Bill.