Irish Examiner view: Is our justice system fit for purpose?
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Last Tuesday morning the and Cork Chamber co-hosted a breakfast debate on Leeside featuring general election candidates running in the city’s constituencies.
During the debate, moderated by political editor Elaine Loughlin, the candidates discussed topics which were being raised on the doorsteps, such as crime and safety in the city.
Fine Gael candidate Shane O’Callaghan said: “If you consistently break the law, disrupt city centres, refuse to engage with addiction services and the other available services, then you should spend some time in jail.”
Other candidates disagreed, advocating for healthcare provision, the provision of safe injection facilities, and tackling homelessness, but Mr O’Callaghan’s comments certainly caught the eye.
Taoiseach Simon Harris was asked about the matter while canvassing and backed Mr O’Callaghan, saying that if a repeat offender living with drug addiction fails to engage with drug support services, he or she should be referred to the criminal justice system.
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Fine Gael would traditionally consider itself the party of law and order, so the comments from Mr O’Callaghan, himself a barrister, would hardly be a wrenching break with that tradition.
It was interesting to see how the counter-argument to his comments was framed; the other candidates favoured prevention and saw crimes arising out of addiction as a result of, or worsened by, general health challenges and homelessness.
This is undoubtedly true.
In addition, the criminal justice system, and the prison sector in particular, is under huge pressure from the sheer weight of numbers it must contend with.
Meaningful rehabilitation in those circumstances is all but impossible.
Yet it is also true that a sizeable number of people would probably agree that jail time is an appropriate response if someone who already has dozens of convictions commits more crimes and then refuses to engage with addiction services.
If there is no meaningful element of deterrence in our justice system is it fit for purpose?
Readers mulling over Greece as a possible destination for a quick break this winter should keep an eye on industrial relations in that country.
On Wednesday there was a general strike across Greece which involved thousands of workers in both the public and private sectors.
Doctors, transport workers, builders, teachers, and other workers joined the strike, with approximately 12,000 people marching in protest through the streets of Athens.
The general strike was timed to coincide with the Greek government submitting its budget for 2025 to parliament, but one of the main motivations behind the mass industrial action was the anger at sharp increases in the cost of living.
In words which will resonate with many Irish people, a Reuters report quoted civil servant Stratis Dounias, marching in Athens, as saying: “Each time we go to the supermarket and each time electricity bills land, we suffer small heart attacks. We want real measures against the high prices.”
Greece has had particular challenges in recent years.
The financial crisis hit the country particularly hard — it lost a quarter of its economic output, while wages and pensions were slashed in return for bailouts amounting to €280bn.
Many of those marching in Athens yesterday claimed their salaries had not increased since the financial crisis and had not kept pace with price rises.
Those demonstrations raise one obvious question — what would it take to produce similar action being taken in in Ireland?
One would have to go back to the 70s for a comparable mass protest, the tax marches of 1979, when hundreds of thousands of PAYE workers took to the streets to register their unhappiness with the Irish tax system.
There has been no shortage of demonstrations since, but nothing on that scale.
It is interesting to consider whether that lack of mass action is the result of general apathy, a fragmentation of society, the lack of a unifying cause, or all of the above.
This is the time of year when former Republic of Ireland soccer international James McClean becomes the focus of supporters at British club grounds for all the wrong reasons.
The Derry native, now playing for Wrexham, will not wear the poppy symbol which commemorates British soldiers killed in armed conflicts — a symbol which features on British soccer club jerseys at this time of year.
In the past, McClean has pointed specifically to the 14 people killed by British soldiers in 1972 in Derry during Bloody Sunday as his reason for not doing so.
In return, he has been roundly abused for years as a result.
The English Football League has now written to clubs telling them the player has special permission to leave playing pitches using the shortest route possible in order to avoid abuse from supporters.
Although McClean himself has welcomed this move as a victory for common sense, it can also be seen in a different light.
It is extraordinary that a sports governing body should not just allow spectators to spew sectarian abuse at a player, but put the onus on the person being abused to change his behaviour.
If a player was to receive racist abuse in the sustained, predictable manner in which McClean has been abused, that governing body would act to halt such abuse.
And rightly so. In effect, this letter tells those abusing him that they may continue to do so.
They will just have a slightly smaller window in which to do so.