Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I agree with Senator Ruane. I accept that the increase in population is not the only reason why there has been an increase in the prison population. However, it is not inconsistent of me to say that prison capacity should have kept in line with the population increase. The Senator is, of course, correct in recognising, as I do, that there are other reasons why our prison population has increased. First, new laws are being created. We are the people who make the new laws. We are the people who say whether or not a prison sentence is necessary. I am pleased to say that one of the new offences I am introducing under this Bill is sex for rent. When we look at this provision, we will notice that there is no possibility of a prison sentence being imposed for that offence. It is solely a fine. We really need to look at ourselves as legislators when it comes to legislation. Do we always need to include a term of imprisonment as a penalty provision? It is hard for us to criticise judges who impose prison sentences when the Oireachtas has said that penalty is available to them.
Senator Ruane also spoke about the training of prison officers. I was given an exhibition by prison officers down in Castlerea as to how they deal with the unusual but dangerous situation that can arise when there is a violent, aggressive prisoner. It is a very harrowing and difficult process to deal with. My view is that I thought, from my experience and knowledge, that the prison officers were very professionally trained and qualified to do so. It is an extremely difficult task. Something like an incapacitant spray could be a more effective way of dealing with that kind of situation, in the unusual circumstances where the need to use it arises.
Thornton Hall was mentioned by Senators O’Reilly and McDowell. They will know that money is allocated in the national development plan, in its latter part, for Thornton Hall. It is part of my plan, and that of the Government, to build a new prison at Thornton Hall. That is the proposal.
We need to recognise that when it comes to the prison population, people are going to prison now who would not have done so 40 years ago. In some respects, that is a good thing. If we look at sexual offences, men got away with violence, rape and sexual assault years ago. There were no consequences. Now, these offences are prosecuted much more vigorously, including for historical offences, and this is going to result in more people being in prison. Indeed, this will mean more elderly people will be in prison. That is also a discussion we need to have at some stage.
We also need to reflect on situations where it is the instinctive response of the Oireachtas to criminalise certain human activities, and then to impose a penal sanction along with it. We need to reflect on this aspect. Maybe we are criminalising too much human behaviour. I will not start naming proposals now, but there are some out there concerning banning certain things. Are these really things that we need to designate breaches of the criminal law, for which, necessarily, there may perhaps be criminal sanction?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24