Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, to the House. This is an important Bill and its importance is increased by the fact that it is, in effect, two Bills — the original one brought forward in 2004 and the Bill as amended this year on Committee Stage in the Dáil when a raft of amendments were introduced on new topics that were not covered in the original Bill. Both the original Bill and the amendments have been the subject of extended scrutiny before coming to this House. When I went through them I realised the extent of the debate that had taken place in the other House.

I want to set the Bill in a slightly wider context, namely, the criminal justice system as a whole and judging the effectiveness of the system itself. When making changes to the system, it is important that we stand back far enough to see the totality of what we are dealing with and then make our judgments accordingly. I am not a lawyer, although I had the kudos of winning a case in 1971 — Senator Hayes was probably not even born——