Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I ask for an urgent debate on the way we send people to prison. In 2008 one third of the prison population were non-nationals, the majority of whom were awaiting deportation. There was an 88% increase between 2007 and 2008 in the number imprisoned because they had not paid their fines. It was clearly stated in the House on a number of occasions that this was a daft policy to follow. The average stay in prison for the majority of prisoners is approximately four months. When one considers that it costs €100,000 a year to keep a person in prison, spending three or four months in prison has no effect on hardened criminals who see it as a holiday. However, for ordinary citizens who do not pay their fines, spending three or four months in prison is unnecessary and a waste of money. We need to find a new way of dealing with them, rather than sending them to prison.

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, back to the House to explain a number of things he has said publicly. During the meeting of the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government yesterday it was revealed that the contracts for the new incinerator had been signed in September 2007 when he was the relevant Minister. It remains Government policy that there is no cap on the amount of waste which can be sent to an incinerator, regardless of what the Minister says on the national airwaves. There has been no change whatsoever in Government policy on incineration in the past two and a half years. Rather than making statements publicly which clearly are not in keeping with Government policy and that of his Department, I ask that the Minister come into the House to make a clear statement on what exactly is Government policy on the issue and not mislead the general public on what he thinks it is.