Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Summary prosecution for burglary in the District Court would allow for a sentence of up to 12 months for any one offence and up to an aggregate maximum of two years for consecutive sentences under the terms of the Bill as initiated. Prosecution on indictment before the Circuit Court would allow for a maximum sentence of 14 years for any one offence of burglary and up to life imprisonment for any one offence of aggravated burglary. There is, in theory, no limit to the aggregate consecutive sentence which the Circuit Court could impose and while the courts have set no definitive limit to the aggregate maximum sentence the District Court can impose by way of consecutive sentence, to date the standard approach taken in legislation is not to exceed two years. Article 38.2 of the Constitution provides that "Minor offences may be tried by courts of summary jurisdiction." In the case of Meagher v. O'Leary, the courts upheld the provisions of section 5 of the Criminal Justice Act 1951, which allow for the District Court to apply consecutive sentences up to an aggregate of two years' imprisonment. Mr. Justice Moriarty acknowledged that had the District Court been statutorily permitted to impose "an indeterminate succession of consecutive sentences, it could give rise to an aggregate sentence of six years imprisonment, which would exceed the maximum allowable for many serious offences following trial on indictment, and could on no rational basis be viewed as an exercise of jurisdiction pursuant to Article 38.2" of the Constitution. Unfortunately, the Deputy's proposed amendments would clearly contravene the constitutional principles underpinning Article 38.2 of the Constitution - as explained in the judgment I have read out - and, therefore, the Government cannot accept either amendment No. 5 or amendment No. 6.