Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being a little late. I chair another Oireachtas committee and we had a clash of schedules. However, I have had a chance to catch up on some of the presentations. Our committee finalised a report last year on penal reform. We made five key recommendations, most notably a de-carceration strategy within our prison system of one third over the next ten years and to look at community service alternatives for minor, non-violent offences. There is some good news in that the fines legislation will mean that in the near future, people will not go to prison for the non-payment of fines. Our committee is open to alternatives, in particular looking at the issue of recidivism.

Recidivism has a corrosive impact on the community’s faith in the criminal justice system. Without being terribly presumptuous, the committee would be open to the proposal from the Lord Mayor on having a pilot project in Dublin city.

On community buy-in, the witnesses spoke about a culture change. What is the advice, as well as the lessons to be learned from New York and other places that have implemented these courts, to facilitate this move from one court culture to this new approach? The Law Society raised the issue of people’s rights under the Constitution to, for example, access to a lawyer. How will this be dealt with to ensure the person is clearly aware of his or her rights before making a decision to plead guilty?

For these courts to be successful there is an issue around resources. In Dublin city, there is one recovery bed for every 400 drug addicts. We have a real problem with homelessness. There are issues, as raised by figures such as Fr. McVerry, about supports for those coming out of prison. Mr. Tony McGillicuddy pointed out the lack of supports for prisoners coming back into society. To get community buy-in with this system, one in which I believe, we need to ensure resources and alternatives are there for dealing with probation, housing, drug addiction supports and counselling. If we are to take these people away from a life of societal failure - God knows what they have gone through in their own lives - to a path of recovery which helps with community healing, then resources need to be in place.