Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2023-04-27 ============================================================ Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland We have, as Senator Wilson said, a growing population. It has increased to 5.1 million from 3.9 million, as it was then. We have very serious crimes being committed. I am the first to say of any District Court judge who thinks it is remotely just to say to some young fellow who resists arrest or spits at a garda that he should go to prison that it is a stupid decision and that he or she is ruining that kid's life. I wanted every District Court judge who committed anybody to a short term of imprisonment to write out in his or her own handwriting why there was no alternative way of dealing with that prisoner----- --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2023-04-27/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2023-04-27