Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

On amendments Nos. 38 and 39, it does not appear that the paragraph would make sense upon removing the word "who". One could remove "who is" or there would be nothing wrong with leaving "who". If "who" is removed instead of "who is", it will read a person "is convicted of a second or subsequent offence" and lead into "shall be sentenced", which would be changed as a result of the Minister's amendment on the mandatory minimum sentence.

Anything that clarifies the mandatory minimum sentence is welcome. On Second Stage, we spoke about the need to increase the number of cases in which the sentence is applied from 16 out of 76. We must know that the sentence is seriously taken on board by the Judiciary and I hope that any further reviews will show the proportion has significantly increased from 20%. Indeed, we could have the converse, that is, applying it in 80% of cases and using discretion in the remaining 20%.