Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 May 2004
35 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will report on whether there is international evidence that mandatory sentencing effectively reduces gun crime or organised crime including drug dealing. [12739/04]
View answerIt is the duty of Government to legislate for effective and proportionate penalties and punishments for all crime and particularly for serious crime. Drug dealing and its associated violence, increasingly involving the use of firearms, are among the most heinous of offences causing untold misery for communities in all parts of the State.
At present, mandatory sentencing in relation to such crimes in this jurisdiction is confined to the provisions of Part II of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 which came into effect on 26 May 1999. Section 4 provides for the creation of a new offence related to the possession of drugs with a value of €12,697 or more for the purpose of sale or supply, which is punishable by up to life imprisonment. It further 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.
The information available to me would suggest that the provision has resulted in some drug traffickers pleading guilty to serious drug trafficking offences and in some cases to the imposition of substantial sentences for such offences including the imposition of the minimum mandatory sentence of at least ten years. However, I am keeping its operation under review.
In particular, I am awaiting the results of a study which my Department has commissioned into convictions for the new drug trafficking offence created by section 4. Preliminary indications from the study suggest that the main factors taken into account by the courts in situations where a sentence of less than ten years has been imposed are where the accused pleads guilty to the offence, co-operates with the prosecuting authorities, and materially assists the Garda Síochána with its investigations.
I have also asked that the range of penalties applicable to firearms offences be urgently and critically examined. In all of these reviews, evidence and research available internationally is taken into account and, where appropriate, presented to Government to inform its decisions.
