Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2024
16. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Justice if she has received from the Judicial Council the sentencing guidelines committee's three-year work plan for sentencing guidelines, as committed to in the Judicial Council's 2022 annual report. [15783/24]
View answer27. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Justice if she has received from the Judicial Council, the sentencing guidelines committee's procedure for developing sentencing guidelines, as committed to in the Judicial Council's 2022 annual report. [15782/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 27 together.
As the Deputy may be aware, the Judicial Council Act 2019 provided for the establishment of the Sentencing Guidelines and Information Committee of the Judicial Council.
Its functions include the preparation of draft sentencing guidelines and the monitoring of the operation of those guidelines, together with the collation of information on sentences imposed by the courts and the dissemination of that information to judges and others.
Under Section 6 of the Judicial Council Act, the Judicial Council is independent in the exercise of its functions and as Minister, I have no role in relation to the operation of the Judicial Council or its Committees.
I can advise the Deputy that the Judicial Council Sentencing Committee last year published its Guideline Development Procedure, which can be accessed on the Council's website. This document, informed by the legislative framework and best practice in other jurisdictions, sets out the procedure that the Committee will follow in developing sentencing guidelines.
The Committee has also commissioned and published expert research on the methodological considerations in the collection and analysis of sentencing data, as well as a guideline document setting out the procedure the Committee intends to apply in developing sentencing guidelines.
I am further informed that the Judicial Council is currently prioritising work on sentencing in the District Court in relation to domestic violence and death by dangerous driving and manslaughter in the Circuit Court, and is carrying out research to inform this work.
The Deputy may be aware that judges are independent in the matter of sentencing, as in other matters concerning the exercise of judicial functions, subject only to the constitution and the law. In accordance with this principle, the court is required to impose a sentence which is proportionate not only to the crime, but to the individual offender, in that process identifying where on the sentencing range the particular case should lie and then applying any mitigating factors which may be present.
The role of the Oireachtas, and my role as Minister, is to determine what an appropriate maximum sentence is for individual offences through primary legislation. I have in a number of cases proposed and enacted legislation to increase maximum sentences, including for assault causing harm and conspiracy to murder. The Oireachtas has also enacted legislation in a number of cases to provide for a presumptive minimum sentence.
There are, of course, a small number of situations where statute has provided the Director of Public Prosecutions with the power to apply to the Court of Criminal Appeal to review a sentence she regards as unduly lenient.
More generally, and as the Deputy may also be aware, an important component of the Department's Review of Penal Policy 2022-24 includes plans to increase the range of sentencing options for judges to deal with offending, particularly for offending behaviour which would normally attract a short sentence.
