Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be supporting the Bill. I agree with much of what Deputy O'Callaghan outlined so I will be reasonably brief.

The first point I would like to make is about whether the Judiciary decides to follow legislation that contains provisions relating to minimum sentences. I do not think that is a reason to oppose legislation. It raises a question about the Judiciary choosing to ignore legislation that contains such provisions. It does not raise a question as to whether there should be legislation of this sort. That is part of a larger debate for another day.

I share many of the reservations about the bluntness or effectiveness of guidelines relating to minimum sentences. Overall, the legislation is moving us in the right direction. I agree with what the Minister is trying to do. There is more benefit in going forward with it than in removing sections 4 and 5, which would effectively gut the legislation.

Essentially, when everything else is stripped out, what we have here is a difference in viewpoints that are genuinely held by different people about how to tackle something. From what I understood from Deputy Clare Daly's contribution, I do not think she would be supportive of any type of guidelines regarding minimum sentences and would leave it all to a process of judicial decision based on general sentencing guidelines. I worry about the impact on sentencing of these much called for and much wanted sentencing guidelines for the Judiciary. The passing of legislation that provides for minimum sentences is one of the strongest sentencing guidelines the Judiciary could be given. However, we are informed, on more than one occasion, that the Judiciary chooses to ignore such guidelines. In that context, we could be faced here with a situation whereby a very nice set of sentencing guidelines are not followed.

I will support the Bill. I will not be supporting the removal of sections 4 and 5.