Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Deputy is rightly concerned about attacks on the members of the Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces and emergency personnel in the course of their work. I share that concern and I want to make it clear that I utterly condemn any such attacks. I will have no hesitation of any nature in taking whatever action, including legislative reform, that might be necessary to protect gardaí, Defence Force personnel and other emergency workers against criminal attack.

There are a number of important provisions already in law which seek to ensure that gardaí and other relevant personnel are protected.

Where a person is convicted of the murder of a member of an Garda Síochána acting in the course of his or her duty under section 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 1990 the court is required by section 4 of that Act to specify 40 years as the minimum period of imprisonment to be served by the convicted person. Where the offence is one of attempted murder under section 3 the minimum term of imprisonment to be served is 20 years.

Section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 provides for the offence of assault of a member of an Garda Síochána, a prison officer, a member of the Defence Forces or certain emergency and medical personnel. The penalty for the offence is a maximum of seven years imprisonment.

The maximum penalty for manslaughter is life imprisonment in accordance with section 5 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861.

The position on mandatory sentences is that the Law Reform Commission was asked by the previous Attorney General to look at the issue of such sentencing. This was done at the instigation of the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The commission recently published a consultation document on mandatory sentences and invited submissions from interested parties. One of the preliminary recommendations of the consultation paper is against the extension of the presumptive minimum mandatory sentence regime that currently applies to certain offences such as drug trafficking. Obviously the commission will have to consider any submissions made to it on this subject before making a final recommendation. I would not like to prejudge the outcome of its deliberations. I look forward to receiving and examining the recommendations of the commission in its final report on this subject.

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