31 January 2007
Dr. Henry: I second the proposed amendment to the Order of Business. As somebody who attended the Irish Hospital Consultants Association's meeting after the Tánaiste's mud-wrestling speech, I must say he is a great man with words and has a great deal of influence on people.
Could the Leader arrange a debate, as soon as possible, on the reports of the inspector of prisons and those of the visiting committees for the various prisons? The Leader and the House have attempted to have them debated in the past but the Tánaiste has little enthusiasm for debating them. He said in the House that we cannot debate all the reports. However, we are spending hundreds of millions of euro on reports and, as the Leader has agreed, reports are of little value if we do not examine their content and consider what we can learn from them.
There is much debate on the airways at present about sentencing policy, prison reform and restorative justice. I am delighted the pilot studies in Nenagh and Tallaght were successful and that the Tánaiste has set up a committee to examine the possibility of expanding restorative justice in place of prison sentences. These issues need to be debated in the House. We are the people who will be required to introduce the legislation on restorative justice and prison reform. We need to consider the advice and information we are being given.
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