Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I advert to an issue arising out of the recent troubles in Dublin. People have been speaking about an expectation that the Judiciary will inflict tough sentences. The Judiciary will do what it will do. I draw attention to one simple fact, which is that, at the moment, there are waiting times of two years at least in some jury cases involving rape and matters like that. The Courts Service is operating under a huge backlog situation in which dates are being fixed for jury trials two years after they come to the Circuit Court. The consequence of this is that the suffering of actual victims of crime, including rape victims, families of murder victims, victims of assault and victims of various other, serious crimes, is extended unnecessarily. In the United States and the United Kingdom, you see people in jail within six or eight months, even after contested trials. Here, you just do not see that. There is something wrong with our system and we have to address it.

The second point is that if there are more convictions, we have nowhere to put those people. In Mountjoy Prison, there are people sleeping on mattresses on the floor. This overcrowding is the kind of situation that gave rise to the commission of investigation into the death of Gary Douch. That will be repeated. We must face up to all of these issues. I ask the Deputy Leader for a debate to discuss the matter, including whether we have enough prison spaces. I am not suggesting prison for everybody but I am asking whether there are enough prison spaces, what is happening in the court system and what is happening with what I consider to be a crisis in criminal justice. I ask the Deputy Leader to arrange a proper discussion in the House in order to thrash out the solutions to these problems.