Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The second part is linked to some of the points that the Minister made, and they follow on from that. The first part is in relation to putting a ceiling on the sentencing of a child - that is, that a court may not sentence a child to more than three years in detention. The original Children Act of 2001, before it was amended in 2006, contained an upper limit on the time a child could spend in detention and it did not permit the court to impose a sentence longer than that. I do not know why this was taken out in 2006. I do not see any good reason why we could not revert to what are, in reality, the more humane provisions of the 2001 Act. We say we want prison to be about rehabilitation and helping a child in trouble. We have seen the statistics on the types of children who end up in detention - they have difficult circumstances in their backgrounds and so on. Three years is more than enough to work on and assist that person to be rehabilitated. I think that what was in the 2001 Act should be maintained. I actually think three years is a bit long. I would revise it down to two years on Report Stage, if that were possible. The principle is critical if we talk about prison as being about rehabilitation rather than punishment. That is the first aspect of it. It is the second most important amendment.

The second part of amendment No. 7 follows on from what the Minister has said about the laying down of a sentence and it proposes that that should be done in writing. I agree with the Minister's amendments and the rationale for them, but the IPRT points out that the requirement to have a sentence in writing is a good practice to get into and I think it would complement what the Minister proposes here. I think it would focus the Judiciary on the reasons it is handing down a custodial sentence to a child. It would give a backup and a certain consistency in decision making if there was a written record. I do not think it is hugely onerous - it would bring clarity and transparency to courts where children are being sentenced. I think it would help victims and legal practitioners as well to have that in writing.