Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for introducing this legislation, which is welcome and is extremely important. Like Senator O'Donovan, my experience in the District Court has been of a limited nature. I was surprised by the figures given for the use of community service orders.

It is also welcome because it deals with the imposition of fines. The Act of 2010 helped in this regard. Previously, excessive fines were imposed on people and, particularly in view of our economic circumstances, many people were not able to pay them. My experience, in the past three or four months - it may have been the last District Court case I appeared in - was that a fine of €4,000 was imposed on my client and the immediate response was to appeal the matter to the Circuit Court, which would have taken up even more of the time of the court and the gardaí involved. A community service order might have been a far more appropriate procedure in that case.

Something to which I referred last night was the need to steer people away from getting even as far as the District Court. I mentioned people who had dropped out of school. Interestingly, in the survey to which I referred last night, more then 70% of the people we surveyed five years after leaving the facility with which I was involved had neither a father nor a grandfather who had worked. These people were going down the road towards crime. The more we can do to steer people away from going down that road, the better. The next step when matters do reach the courts, is the community service facility. This is a welcome Bill and it is important that it is implemented. I thank the Minister and his officials for introducing it.