Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I want to speak briefly in support of Senator Norris. The brevity does not in any way reflect the seriousness of the matter. I support the essential proposition that nobody should go to jail for non-payment of a television licence fee. It makes moral, humanitarian and natural sense not to jail people for offences of that nature. It makes administrative sense bearing in mind the overcrowding of jails. There is something bizarre, ludicrous and almost Dickensian about sending an unfortunate soul to jail for non-payment of a television licence fee. That is not to say we should not enforce licence fee collection. Of course we should.

I agree with the thrust of what Senator Walsh said. We need to consider the method of collection of the television licence fee and methods for dealing with non-payment other than jailing people. For a range of offences it should be possible to deal with people by other methods, including attachment of earnings and payments by instalments, as mentioned by the Minister of State. It can be achieved by a myriad of methods. However, it is wrong to have somebody languishing in a prison because of an offence of this nature. There should be sufficient creativity in our judicial system and in our Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform implementation process for fines to find another methodology for doing it. This is not a debate on criminology. Jail should be always a last resort when there is no possible alternative after every rehabilitative option has been exhausted. Every financial and other kind of sanction should be explored to the last, including the community service option, which is a very good one. We have failed when we reach the stage of jailing people for such offences.