Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise again for missing the start of the Minister of State's contribution. I was caught on the hop.

This Bill aims to bring Ireland into line with most other European Union member states in providing that people convicted of offences can eventually leave their past behind them and get on with their lives. This is a positive innovation which the Fianna Fáil Party supports. The Bill will help former offenders re-enter the workforce and facilitate offenders who have paid their debts to society and want to leave crime behind by encouraging them to do so. However, a number of amendments are required to ensure the Bill is equitable and effective in its implementation.

The Bill builds on the seminal 2007 Law Reform Commission report on spent convictions, which put forward new ideas on how to deal with rehabilitating people who have paid their debt to society. It is important that a clear rehabilitative route is open to people who have served their time, particularly those who committed misdemeanours in their youth. The Bill aims to set out a process for such persons to normalise their lives and fully re-enter society. Employment restores a person's self-esteem, enhances his or her status among family, friends and the wider community and reduces recidivism. Securing employment, therefore, is a highly effective way of achieving the re-integration of convicted persons into society. The Bill also provides for checks to ensure procedures are in place to oversee the future employment of former convicts in employment in which there is contact with children. A balance must be struck between the justice system as a deterrent, the needs of society and the requirement for the rehabilitation of former convicts.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust has proposed amendments to the Bill, of which the Government has accepted a small number. My party will press to widen the application of the legislation to maximise its impact on rehabilitation. The Bill brings Ireland into line with other European Union and Council of Europe member states. Such legislation is a necessary element in ensuring that the commission of a criminal offence does not lead to permanent barriers to re-integration in society. The current position has far-reaching consequences for those who are sentenced for criminal offences. Individuals with even minor criminal convictions face ongoing restrictions and barriers to employment, training, education, travel and the obtaining of insurance, as well as in many other areas of life. In view of the fact that the largest proportion of those who are sentenced by the courts receive short-term prison sentences, fines or community-based sanctions for non-violent offences, the absence of the possibility of having a criminal conviction expunged after a period of time has elapsed is a consequence that can be disproportionate. It could also be argued that it constitutes additional punishment that lasts a lifetime. Expunging a criminal conviction enables former offenders to re-enter the workforce and leave behind their criminal pasts. The Bill is integral to the meaningful rehabilitation of offenders and to helping minor offenders to move on with their lives.

Some aspects of the Bill have been criticised, in the first instance by the Irish Penal Reform Trust, which broadly welcomed the publication of the legislation as a positive step towards supporting the rehabilitation of offenders. In particular, the trust welcomed the decision to increase the maximum term of imprisonment eligible to become a spent conviction to 12 months and to shorten the rehabilitation periods to between three and seven years. Despite these improvements on previous proposals, the trust argues that other issues must be resolved if we are to strike the correct balance between public safety and reducing barriers to reintegration for those who have moved on from offending behaviour. According to the trust, while the decision to increase the maximum sentence to which the legislation will apply to 12 months marks an improvement on the six-month period originally proposed, the threshold for an eligible conviction should be extended to at least 30 months. A review of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 in the United Kingdom found that a limit of 30-month sentences was too restrictive. The Government has indicated, however, that it is not willing to move on the issue.

Although the rehabilitative periods of between three and seven years constitute an improvement on the periods originally proposed, the Irish Penal Reform Trust argues that they should be shortened to a period of between two and four years. The Government has amended the original Bill to reflect this suggestion. While the length of the required period of rehabilitation must be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence committed, it must not be of such duration as to be discouraging.

The Irish Human Rights Commission, in its submission on the Bill, has been significantly more critical. It notes, for example, in its observations that the proposed legislation is "overly restrictive and will not assist in re-integrating people convicted of minor offences back into society and employment". The commission's key recommendations focus on the need to assess the benefits of the Bill in light of the impact of the vetting legislation passed by the Oireachtas, particularly in view of the scope of vetting being undertaken.

As an example, I refer to the scope of vetting undertaken when applying for a range of CAO courses.

The commission also identified issues arising from the contradictions in this Bill and the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012. Dr. Maurice Manning, president of the commission, has stated:

The grounds of discrimination in the Employment Equality and Equal Status legislation should be extended to include discrimination on the basis of a criminal conviction. Without such a prohibition on discrimination the Spent Convictions Bill may be of little assistance in practice. Such an anti-discrimination provision would enable the future Human Rights and Equality Commission to consider cases of discrimination based on a person's criminal record.

I also received a submission from the Mercy Law Resource Centre, MLRC, which operates at 25 Cork Street, Dublin. The Minister of State is probably aware that it is an independent law centre and charity that provides free legal advice and representation in the fields of housing and social welfare law to persons who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It has detailed some of its observations and stated:

The link between homelessness and crime cannot be ignored if either is going to be successfully tackled. Current legislation in the form of sections 14 and 15 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act-----

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