Mr DEAN (Windermere) - Mr President, I simply rise to commend the Government for bringing these amendments into this Chamber. Stalking is a hideous crime, in my view, and it has a terrible impact on the victims in all cases that I am aware of. In fact, we all would be well and truly aware of a stalking case that occurred in the north of the State where, at the end of the day, a person lost her life as a result of it. That was a case I referred to at Longford where a lady had been stalked. It is an absolutely hideous crime and I commend the Government on every move to make it easier to bring those types of offenders to justice in whatever the situation might be.

I just want to comment that, as I said here recently, crime does not stop within boundaries these days. It is so much easier for people to partly commit crimes and offences in any State anywhere in the country. With computers and with telephones and all the technology that we now have, we find that many crimes extend beyond those boundaries. So this tightens all that up as well and indeed we need to do that. As I said, if somebody is committing this type of offence, wherever it be, whether it be personally, via technology or whatever it might be, they deserve to be brought to justice. Accordingly I support the bill.