Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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460. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will move to implement the 2013 proposals from the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality on changes to our laws on prostitution. [26785/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am examining the recommendations made by the Justice Committee regarding a new approach to prostitution legislation. When I have had the opportunity to properly consider all of the issues, legislative proposals will be brought to Government in the usual way.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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461. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will move to implement the 2013 proposals from the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality on penal law reforms. [26786/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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In line with the recommendations of the Thornton Hall Project Review Group, a Working Group was established to carry out a strategic review of penal policy. That Group was asked to make recommendations as to how a sustainable penal system might be further enhanced taking into account resource implications, Constitutional imperatives and international obligations. The Working Group was asked to examine the role of penal policy in crime prevention, sentencing policies, alternatives to custody, custodial accommodation and regimes, reintegration and rehabilitation as well as any special issues relating to female offenders. This Group is expected to report shortly and the recommendations of that Group will be considered in conjunction with the Report on Penal Reform from the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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462. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to update incitement to hatred legislation. [26787/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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A cross-Departmental review of Ireland’s Integration Strategy, including measures to address racism, is being led by my Department’s Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration. As well as the cross-Departmental review, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality is doing work on integration, multi-culturalism and combating racism. The issue of strengthening the law to combat racism, including the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, will be considered in the context of the outcome of these reviews.