Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The objective behind amendment No. 55 is to set out a statutory provision noting that if the board believes a person will be rehabilitated if granted parole or has been rehabilitated and is capable of re-entering society, it is a ground or one of the principles upon which it should be guided. It is important to set it out.

Deputies Daly and Wallace are correct when they say prison is about rehabilitation but it is also about punishment. There are many cases where people are just convicted of murder. There are different degrees of murder. We do not differentiate between murders under our legal system. The factors associated with the case of somebody who is convicted of killing a group of children, as supposed to somebody who is convicted of murder committed on the spur of the moment one night with drink taken, can be taken into account. It could be argued that the issue is to assess whether the former candidate still poses a threat but it is unrealistic to believe the parole board should not take into account the offence for which a person has been convicted. Sometimes that may be unfair but it is relevant to the function it has to fulfil to ascertain the gravity of the offence committed. Some offences stand out but not because of media notoriety. The murder of five children is different from another type of criminal offence. I am aware that this is a tricky issue. Not to include what is proposed, however, would mean the board would not take into account the gravity of the original offence. The reality is that, when any parole board comes to consider a case, it will ask what the individual is convicted of. The amendment raises an interesting point but, on balance, I will oppose it.