Earlier today, Sinn Féin met the family of Joe Drennan. Joe was killed in a hit-and-run in October 2023. The man who killed Joe had 46 previous convictions. He was on bail at the time and was banned from driving. That night, he drove a BMW at top speed, broke a red light, smashed a car so fast that even after the back wheel had come off, the car continued to proceed to smash into Joe, robbing him of his young life. That man then got out, wiped down the car and ran away like a coward. Shockingly, he will not serve a single day for killing Joe as the sentence is to run concurrently with a separate firearms conviction. Does the Minister agree that the criminal justice system in this case has failed Joe Drennan and his family? Will the Government act in response? In particular, will it introduce legislation to ensure that concurrent sentences do not apply for separate instances where in one of those instances loss of life has resulted?

I appreciate the difficulties and my sympathies are with the family of Joe Drennan. I cannot imagine what they are going through, particularly in light of what the Deputy outlined. I am not familiar with the specifics around the sentencing. I do not want to comment on specific sentencing relating to the courts system but I will ask the Minister for Justice, who is familiar with the case, to engage with the Deputy and respond to his specific question on legislation. I will ask him to do that quickly, also in the context of the family whom the Deputy met today.

I call the Labour Party leader, Deputy Bacik.

The Minister for Justice wants to comment.

Excuse me.

I am sorry; I did not know he was here.

I am aware of the tragic case of Joe Drennan. As the Minister said, I will get back to the Deputy in respect of it. Obviously, I cannot deal with issues arising from specific sentences imposed in individual cases but it is the case that in certain instances, consecutive sentences appear to be more appropriate than concurrent sentences. There is a benefit in clarifying that across the board.