Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have six petitions for consideration today. The first is petition No. 00033/21 entitled “Call for a Citizens Assembly on the Irish Justice system; Policing, Crime and Rehabilitation” from Mr. Cormac McKay. This petition relates to the request that the then proposed citizens' assembly on drugs be expanded to encompass the entire justice system, policing, crime and rehabilitation in the Republic of Ireland. According to the petition, there is a growing public perception and opinion that our criminal justice system is not fit for purpose and people are now living in fear. This petition was received on 31 August 2021 and the views of the Department of Justice sought on 8 September 2021. However, no response was received until recently when the petitioner emailed to inquire about the status of his petition. The updated information on this is that the secretariat sent a reminder to the Department of Justice and received the below response via the committee, dated 26 January 2024. The Department apologised for the lengthy delay in issuing this reply and stated inter alia:

There was a suggestion in the petition that the work of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use be expanded to include "the Irish Justice system, Policing, Crime and Rehabilitation". The decision to hold a citizens’ assembly on drugs use arose from a Programme for Government commitment on the formation of the Government in 2020. The holding of a citizens’ assembly and its remit were for the Government as advised by the [leading] Departments, the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Health. The area of drugs use is a very complex and wide-ranging issue and, in order to fully explore all relevant issues, it was not considered feasible to expand the subject matter beyond that to the wider criminal justice system, policing, crime and rehabilitation. In relation to the criminal justice system, extensive reforms have been carried out over the past number of years. For example, in the area of policing, the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland ... in its final report of September 2018 ... identified a large number of reforms to how our approach to policing and the wider concept of community safety, as well as national security, should be taken forward. In terms of crime and rehabilitation, the Government published the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform in August 2022, which sets out a number of prioritised actions in relation to the penal system and which are currently being implemented. Other policies and strategies in this area which involved a wide range of public consultation include the Criminal Justice Sectoral Strategy, the Youth Justice Strategy and Zero Tolerance - Third National DSGBV Strategy, all of which are currently being implemented.

The Department concluded by saying that as outlined above:

It is clear that there has been very extensive public consultation around policing, crime and rehabilitation and a number of policies, strategies, structures and new legislation have been put in place over the past 5 years to reflect those consultations...

The recommendation is that the correspondence from the Department of Justice be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. Do members have any views or is that agreed? The response from the Department of Justice notes that the citizens’ assembly on drugs was not extended as the petitioner suggested out of concern it would be overly broad in its remit and therefore unwieldy. Would there be a problem with running the petition by Irish Penal Reform Trust to get its views on the effectiveness or otherwise of the reform of the justice system? Can we send the petition to it and ask for its views?