Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is regrettable that we are moving to a by-election in the Seanad. Many Members, including myself, expressed our deep regret about our colleague Jimmy Harte’s resignation. Yesterday, all of us wished him well in his retirement and for his speedy recovery. I am not going to descend to making any sort of cheap political points about the unfortunate fact that we will have a by-election to fill his absence. We sorely miss him.

I thank the Leader for indicating yesterday that next week we will be debating a motion on the terrible humanitarian crisis in Syria. However, I am glad that since yesterday a package of measures has been agreed at the European Council with €1 billion promised in aid to resolve the crisis we are seeing with refugees gathering on the borders of Europe.

Yesterday, it was remiss of me not to commend our colleague, Senator Hayden, on the publication earlier this week of the Threshold report on its Dublin tenancy protection service. I commend her for all the work she has done in this area and support her calls for a debate on the issues contained in the report.

I commend the Irish Association for the Social Integration of Offenders, IASIO, on the publication of its biennial report for 2014-2015. I was glad to attend the report's official launch by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald. I commend Paddy Richardson, chief executive of IASIO, and its staff for the significant work they have done in seeking to rehabilitate and reintegrate ex-offenders into the community. They have some really strong success stories from the past two years, including over 1,200 employment placements and 433 community returns successfully completed. The organisation is doing an important service for rehabilitation.

While we have had debates on rehabilitation before, will the Leader organise another one? I would also hope that such a debate on rehabilitation and crime generally would be done with a focus on rural crime which was highlighted so much at the ploughing championships this week. All of us welcomed the announcement this week by the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, and the Government of the €30 million rural regeneration and investment in rural communities package.

I have a couple of suggestions as to the crime prevention projects on which some of that money could be spent. In particular, there could be an extension of some ongoing Garda schemes such as the crime prevention ambassadors, a scheme particularly useful for older people in rural communities, and the community CCTV programmes in rural areas. I will be writing to the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, on this but we should have a broad debate on crime prevention and the rehabilitation of offenders.