Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 7 Jun 2000

Vol. 520 No. 4

Written Answers. - Sentencing Policy.

Tony Gregory

Question:

189 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when he will be in a position to review the ongoing inconsistency of sentencing in drugs related cases and the non-implementation of the mandatory ten years sentence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15880/00]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

The courts are, subject only to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of their judicial functions and I, as a member of the Executive, am precluded from intervening directly.

Part II of the Criminal Justice Act, 1999, provides in section 4 for the creation of a new offence related to the possession of drugs with a value of £10,000 or more for the purpose of sale or supply. It provides in section 5 that the court shall, in imposing sentence, specify a minimum period of imprisonment to be served of not less than ten years upon conviction for the offence. Section 5 also provides, however, that a court is entitled to depart from the imposition of the minimum sentence where there are exceptional and specific circumstances relating to the offence or the person convicted of the offence which would make it unjust in all the circumstances to impose the minimum ten year sentence. Factors to which the court may have regard in this respect include whether the person pleaded guilty, and, if so, the stage at which the person indicated the intention to plead guilty and the circumstances in which the indication was given, and whether the person materially assisted the investigation of the offence.

Part II of the Act has been in force only since 26 May last year. I will, however, continue to monitor the operation of these provisions.

Under our legal system, the law provides generally for maximum penalties for criminal offences. The law enables the judge to exercise his discretion, within the maximum penalty, by reference to the conclusions he/she has reached after trying the case, hearing all the evidence and assessing the culpability and circumstances of the accused. Our system of recruitment to all levels of the Judiciary is based on the concept of bringing in experienced and trained legal practitioners and, consequently, judges, on appointment, who have a wide knowledge of the law and its application. In so far as consistency of sentencing is concerned, it is important to mention that the Criminal Justice Act, 1993, provides that the Director of Public Prosecutions may apply to the court for a review of what appears to the director to be an unduly lenient sentence.

The complex question of sentencing policy was addressed at length by the Law Reform Commission which specifically recommended against the introduction of statutory sentencing guidelines. Its report pointed out a number of differences of opinion among members of the commission in relation to some of the recommendations in that report which tends to underline the obvious complexities which arise in relation to sentencing policy.

The Courts and Courts Officers Act, 1995, enable me to provide funds for judicial training courses arranged by the Judiciary and, this year, I made £206,000 available to the Judicial Studies Institute, which was established by the Chief Justice for the purposes of judicial training. I understand that the issue of sentencing has been examined by the institute in the context of its training programme.

Section 36 of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act, 1961, makes provision for meetings of District Court Judges to discuss,inter alia, the avoidance of undue divergence in the exercise of the jurisdiction of the court and the general level of fines and penalties. While there is no similar provision in the case of other courts, I understand they hold similar meetings.

The Sixth Report of the Working Group on a Courts Commission also made reference to the issue of sentencing. The working group suggests that judicial education could be addressed by a judicial standards body in liaison with the Judicial Studies Institute. This new body could,inter alia, provide a monitoring and analytical service on matters such as sentencing along the lines of the Judicial Commission in New South Wales. The Chief Justice established a judicial committee to consider, inter alia, the recommendations made in the working group report and the judicial committee has met on a number of occasions.