Chain gang punishment for Phoenix Park troublemakers? One minister would “love” to do it

As the country continues to deal with the catastrophic events of last weekend's Swedish House Mafia concert in the Phoenix Park, one minister has pledged support to chain gang punishment.

Already Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has spoken of the "widespread public concern" over last Saturday's gig, which saw 33 people arrested and 70 charges of public order offences. In addition, one concertgoer died of a suspected drug overdose and nine others were stabbed at the event.

After such a staggering level of disorder, numerous politicians are now seeking various remedies to ensure that the mayhem is not repeated, such as increasing the price of alcohol or beefing up security for next month's David Guetta dance gig.

On The Last Word with Matt Cooper this evening, Brian Hayes TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, approved of a more extreme method suggested by one of the radio show's listeners - chain gang punishment, in which prisoners are chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work in public. The punishment is not used in Europe and is currently legal in just one US state, Arizona.

"It's not a bad idea," replied the TD when asked of his opinion on bringing the punishment to similar offenders to those at the Phoenix Park gig. "I'd love to be in a position to do something like that."

"You are," said Matt in response to his guest. "You're in Government, you could introduce legislation."

""We can't do that retrospectively," came the minister's response.

Do you believe that such punishment would be likely to deter the possibility of the level of lawlessness seen on Saturday night or would a less extreme option be more effective? You can let us know your views in the comments section below.