Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. If he does not have the answer to any of my questions, I ask him to circulate it afterwards.

Was an impact assessment made of the implementation of this legislation by judges? One of the reasons people are given bail is the possibility that there will be an undue delay in hearing cases in court. It can take some time for a case to come to court.

On the issue of whether not to grant bail on the grounds that a person is likely to reoffend, how many more people will end up in prison as a result of this proposal? Some 25% of people who commit burglaries account for 75% of burglaries. What does this represent in hard numbers, in other words, to how many individuals does it amount? Does the prison system have the capacity to deal with the numbers involved if the law is implemented and judges refuse bail applications?

I spoke previously about the issue of smart tagging. The Minister of State alluded to the Bail Act 1997. The briefing material from the Library and Research Service notes that section 6 of the Act allows for electronic monitoring or smart tagging of persons who are charged with a serious offence or appealing against a sentence of imprisonment imposed by the District Court or out on bail. Unfortunately, this section has not been commenced.

On alternatives to bail, the Criminal Justice Act 2006 allows for an alternative sentence to imprisonment by means of electronic tagging. Research carried out by the Library and Research Service has found that reoffending rates among those who were subject to smart tagging or electronic monitoring in Florida for property and drug-related crimes declined by 95%. The Library and Research Service also notes that monitoring a person for one month costs €195, whereas imprisonment for one day costs €263. While I am in favour of the Bill on the basis that it is necessary to tackle those who are responsible for the majority of crimes, smart policing also involves using smart technology. I agree that habitual criminals should be allowed not to have a series of other crimes taken into consideration when being sentenced. In a recent case a person who had 60 convictions for burglary was sentenced to six months for a series of crimes. Let us be honest, this person will be convicted for a 62nd and a 63rd time because he is a habitual offender. We should use the Bail Act 1997 and the Criminal Justice Act 2006 to implement electronic and smart tagging for habitual burglars, as well as for other habitual offenders. As the Minister of State and the officials will be aware, of 16,000 people disqualified from driving, 500 were subsequently involved in serious accidents, some of which caused death. If electronic monitoring or smart tagging had been used, a member of An Garda Síochána would have been able to determine if the person was in a car at any time and could have had the vehicle stopped. Provided someone else was not driving, the person being monitored could then have been imprisoned. I am raising the possibility of such a provision being added to the Bill.

My principal question to the Minister of State is whether the prison system has the capacity to deal with the 25% of burglars who are habitual offenders when they come before the courts. Will a judge agree with the Garda that a habitual burglar should not be granted bail but ultimately decide not to incarcerate the individual in question on the basis that the prison system cannot accommodate him or her or that a trial may not be held within 12 months?