Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I note the House will sit on Friday. While I do not object to Friday sittings, I object when their sole purpose is to facilitate the Dáil rushing through legislation on Wednesday and Thursday before dumping it in the House on Friday. The Leader will share my view on the matter. I would be much happier if we started our meeting on a Tuesday to the effect that we cannot be used as a dumping ground for matters not dealt with in the Dáil. I do not object to the Order of Business as it is in place this week but it is a precedent along with which we should not go. It is the Dáil's problem if it does not deal with its business in time. We should question every occasion on which matters are rushed through this House.

The issue raised by Senator Brian Hayes is crucially important. It is a joke that we are prepared to waste time sending people around to investigate dog licences and report to the Garda, which then wastes further time preparing a case and taking people to court, threatening them and deciding to send them to prison because they do not have a dog licence. There are enough problems in Limerick city already and the residents there will be less than impressed that State and Garda time, and prison space, are being tied up on such issues. It is completely wrong.

Speaking for the small people, there is also very likely a miscarriage of justice in this situation. This great-grandmother was only feeding a stray dog which she had never owned. Nonetheless, she was threatened with incarceration in prison and her family must come up with the money to prevent this outcome. To do that to a great-grandmother, suffering from asthma and some other illnesses, reflects extraordinarily badly on our system of justice. I could not agree more with Senator Brian Hayes on the need to deal with this issue. It brings the whole system into disrepute. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform last night spoke about building more prisons and the need for more prison space. This raises the question as to why such a high proportion of the population is incarcerated compared with other countries. The kind of nonsense we saw threatened in Limerick this week is the answer.