I am anxious to finish this section before 5.30 p.m. but I want to raise one matter with the Minister. It seems extraordinary to me that in section 7, which in my view is a much more minor than section 6 in that it involves displaying in writing a sign or visible representation which is threatening, abusive, insulting or obscene, with the intent of provoking a breach of the peace and so on, does not involve intimidating somebody. It does not involve setting out to actually insult a person in a direct sense in the way that section 6 does. It is not behaviour as such that we are talking about, but rather documentation, writings and so on and the distribution of literature.
I do not want to repeat the argument I made about prison sentences — even Deputy McDowell and I do not agree on that; he wants a lesser sentence. However, I feel very strongly that over the next few years we will spend much public money and it will take up to three to four years to find new accommodation — two years at the minimum; I think the Minister may have said two years — to provide the number of places that will be required under the laws we are making. We will be building prison space year in year out and we will always be behind.
Therefore, in conjunction with the evaluation of our penal system which is underway at the Department of Justice, we also need to look very carefully at any new legislation we are introducing and to provide for the attachment of earnings, proper fines and community service orders. All of the alternatives must first be explored, particularly for crimes which are relatively minor, even though I do not for one moment justify insulting by way of literature or remarks any group of individuals or any individual. We cannot tolerate that, but we are not talking about the use of violence, mugging people, robbing people's homes and stealing their possessions.
We need to be very careful in the kind of powers that we give to the Judiciary. We expect much of the Judiciary. We give them fairly wide discretionary powers, but we make the law and we must ensure that we give them the range of alternatives before we expect them to send somebody into detention, which is expensive in the use of financial resources. It takes a huge number of people to staff it if it is to rehabilitate in any sense those who are sent away, particularly young people. We know that at any one time half the prison population has been there at least once before. The way we use prison space at the moment is not effective. If we wish to make it effective we need to staff it appropriately. We need to look at all of the alternatives. We need people to be seen to pay a penalty, and that goes not necessarily mean going to jail. A much heavier penalty sometimes is to make people do hard work in the community, to be seen to do it and to have to pay out of their pockets for wrongs they have done.
I wish to repeat here, even in the context of this legislation, that equating section 6 and section 7 is not getting our priorities right. Section 7 is not on the same terms as section 6. Even if we are going to have the prison sentences and fines, I do not see why the two should be exactly the same.
