David Norris (Independent)

I hope the Minister for Finance decides to pay off some more of the national debt in today's budget. It would be wonderful if we could become debt-free in these times of prosperity.

I would like to speak about the extraordinary figures relating to the sentencing of prisoners which have been mentioned by other Senators. I gather the figures can be compared to the equivalent international figures. There is nothing unusual about our figures in that context. The rate of recidivism in Ireland is not greater than that in other countries — in fact, it is slightly less. It is interesting that just 25% of sexual offenders reoffend, as I would have thought the figure would be far higher. It appears the behaviour of such people in certain circumstances is less compulsive than the community believes. I do not agree with the idea of imprisoning people for not paying fines in respect of their television sets. Some of my colleagues have suggested taking some of the meagre social welfare income that such people receive. That is the most revolting suggestion I have heard in this House. I simply cannot believe it. I am sure it was just a slip of the tongue or a mistake.