Ms Ciara Carberry:

I mention, first, that sentencing is a matter for judges and not for the Department. I am aware that the Judicial Council is working towards bringing consistency to sentencing and is looking at sentencing guidelines. I imagine that that would be a very useful piece of work. Section 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 is probably working as it is intended to do at the moment, and as my colleague has said there, the DPP is very careful in her selection of cases to bring forward. From the Department's point of view, we need to be careful about getting involved in any discussions around whether sentences are appropriate or not because that is really a matter for the sentencing judge.