Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 11 Feb 2003

Vol. 561 No. 1

Written Answers. - Criminal Records.

Joe Costello

Ceist:

464 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will put in place a structure whereby criminal records can be expunged for certain categories of ex-offenders after a specified time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3377/03]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell):

Section 6(4) of the Employment Equality Act 1998, which came into operation on 18 October 1999, provides as follows:

The Minister shall review the operation of this Act, within two years of the coming into operation of this section, with a view to assessing whether there is a need to add to the discriminatory grounds set out in this section.

A similar provision was subsequently included in the Equal Status Act 2000.

As part of the review of the 1998 Act, a discussion paper was produced by my Department and a round table conference involving the social partners, relevant Departments, the Equality Authority, the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations and the Labour Court was held in September 2001.

At the conference some participants argued that the Employment Equality Act, 1998, should be amended to include the new ground of criminal conviction-ex-prisoner-ex-offender as well as three other new grounds – socio-economic status, including social origin or social origin as a separate ground, trade union membership and political opinion. It was acknowledged that these new grounds are complex in terms of definition and that the practical implications of including the proposed new grounds would require detailed examination.

It has been decided to carry out a survey of international experience of legislation in the above mentioned areas. The research has recently been completed and will be published shortly. The findings of this research and the information obtained through my Department's consultations will inform any future policy decisions.

The second programme of the Law Reform Commission for the period 2000 to 2007 proposes, as part of an examination of the law on privacy, to consider longevity of criminal records and expunging of certain offences from the records. I will consider any recommendations which the Law Reform Commission may make on the matter and bring forward any necessary legislative proposals in the normal way.

Under section 258 of the Children Act 2001, where a person has committed an offence, apart from an offence triable in the Central Criminal Court, while under the age of 18 years, a period of three years has elapsed since the finding of guilt and that person has not been dealt with for an offence in that three year period, he or she will be treated for all purposes in law as a person who has not committed, been charged with, been prosecuted for, found guilty of or dealt with for the offence or offences which were the subject of the finding of guilt. That provision came into operation on 1 May 2002.