Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

That is interesting.

In a republic, the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary are two of the most important principles. As a republican, I have always appreciated those principles in our institutions of State. However, I refer to a worrying development concerning the Criminal Justice Act 1999, which introduced mandatory minimum sentencing for the possession or sale of drugs with a street value in excess of €13,000. Evidence compiled by Deputy Costello demonstrates clearly that in 90% of cases before the courts last year involving drugs with a street value of more than €13,000, a mandatory minimum sentence was not applied. This is a serious matter. Both Houses of the Oireachtas determined that a mandatory sentence should be in place to deal with serious drug pushers and drug barons but the courts are refusing to impose the will of the Oireachtas.

We have a responsibility to ask judges to explain in open court why they are deviating from the clear obligations set out in the 1999 legislation. We may need to revisit the legislation because society needs to know that people who peddle large amounts of drugs will be tackled and prosecuted as set out in the 1999 legislation and that if they are found guilty before the courts, they will receive minimum mandatory sentences of ten years or as much as life imprisonment. This important issue must be teased out and addressed and I raise it in such a fashion.

In recent weeks, Senator Bannon and others have raised an important matter relating to the conclusions of Mr. Justice Barr in the July report of the Barr tribunal, which was established in April 2002. It has been five months since the report's publication, but the House, which established the tribunal, has not had an opportunity to debate its findings. I appreciate that the Leader has done her best in trying to arrange a date for the debate, but it is not good enough that the House must go cap in hand to the Executive to decide when we can discuss an important report of a tribunal established by us. That we cannot set the date dumbs down Parliament and brings no dignity to the House. I suggest to the Leader that we set a date now. If the Government attends to debate the matter, fine, but if not, we should proceed regardless.