On promised legislation and arising from the discussions at Cabinet today about crime prevention, when will a suite of legislative proposals come before the House? Will it include the introduction of the bail Bill as a central aspect? When will all those issues be brought before the House by way of legislative proposals?

This morning the Government approved two elements in respect of bail in cases where burglaries are occurring. The evidence is that a small number of people carry out an extensive number of burglaries. The Minister proposes to introduce legislation so that repeat offences by offenders can be taken as an indication of a refusal of bail. Where there are repeated charges against particular people the court in its wisdom can decide to have consecutive sentences for repeated burglaries. In general, the Minister hopes to bring the heads of a general bail Bill - about 40 heads in all - to Government, in the next two months or so. This is to deal with the general bail concept which the Deputy has raised on many occasions in the House.