Vol. 492 No. 4
307 Ms Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if effect has been given to the recommendation in the Whitaker report of 1985 that no custodial sentence should be imposed on the offender by a court unless that court has received a report from the Probation and Welfare Service; and, if not, if it is proposed to give effect to it. [14391/98]
It is a matter for decision by the court as to whether a pre-sentence report should be provided or not. Such reports are normally supplied by the Probation and Welfare Service and the introduction of mandatory pre-sentence reports would have obvious resource and other implications for that service.
In the context, generally, of SMI developments, there is a full review of the Probation and Welfare Service in progress and I would expect the review group to consider this whole issue in the course of its work. When I have received the review group's recommendations I will make a further statement about it.
