Ivana Bacik (Independent)

Perhaps we should examine crime policy as an area in which money could be saved. That is especially relevant this week, as we debate the enormous super-prison site in Thornton Hall in north Dublin. We have seen the move in recent years from a due process model of criminal justice to a crime control model. That costs a considerable amount of money and the benefits to us, and to victims of crime, are minimal and have yet to be proven empirically.

We can look at ways of saving money and improving the economic situation but I do not think we need to hear either whingeing from the Minister for Finance or pomposity and patronising from the Government on this.