Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome colleagues back and hope they all had a refreshing break. Will the Leader facilitate debates in anticipation of the budget, which will be announced in four weeks time? This budget comes in the context of the positive economic figures we have seen in recent months, particularly the continued fall in unemployment, which everybody welcomes. I likewise welcome the publication today of the Government's new legislative programme, which focuses on job creation measures and securing economic recovery. In the course of this session we will debate industrial relations legislation, a credit guarantee (amendment) Bill and legislation relating to the European Stability Mechanism, among other Bills dealing specifically with supporting the wider economy. In addition, I hope we also will have extensive debates on legislation that is coming forward in the area of social recovery. For example, the Government will publish Bills on the Judicial Council, children and family relationships, gender recognition and climate action. A significant portion of this legislation deals with issues that were carried over from the previous Government - the climate change Bill being an obvious example - and which it will be good to see finally on the legislative agenda.

Notwithstanding our busy legislative schedule, I ask the Leader to accommodate a debate on penal policy in light of the launch today by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, of the final report of the strategic review of penal policy. That report is a culmination of a review of prison and sentencing policy initiated by the former Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter, and fed into by the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. It proposes overarching and very progressive reforms of penal policy and the prison system. We already have seen several positive steps in this area, with the moving of young offenders out of St. Patrick's Institution and so on. A full debate, now that the final report from the Department is available, together with the report from the Oireachtas committee, would be useful.