Chuala mé deascéal sa seomra seo inniu. Chuala me go raibh an Seanadóir Ó Murchú i mo chontae féin, i nDroichead Átha, an tseachtain seo caite. Ba mhaith liomsa go ndéanfadh an Seanadóir a dhícheall a thionchar a úsáid chun Fleadh Cheoil na h Éireann a thabhairt go Droichead Átha an bhliain seo chughainn.

I support my colleagues in their call for a debate with the Minister for Justice and Equality on the question of sentencing policy. I would also like to see the issue of free legal aid being debated. Last week I read about a person who had been granted free legal aid 57 times in total. Is there no limit in this regard? I ask for an urgent debate on these matters. I wish to use what has happened in the courts this week to encourage young women and girls who are suffering the same fate as the woman in question and have been the victim of the same dastardly acts by members of their own families in their own homes to stand up and be counted, irrespective of what happened yesterday. On the question of sentencing, the fact that 12 years was reduced to three-----

We are not discussing individual cases. I have ruled on this issue on numerous occasions.

Had the figure been reduced to ten, I might have understood it. We need a debate on the issue as soon as possible.