John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Callaghan, for bringing the Bill to the House and I am happy to note the Government will not oppose it.

It will be a surprise to many of my constituents in Dublin South West and to the wider public that there is such a strong political role in the granting of parole in the Irish system. In advance of this year’s general election, I held a number of public meetings on the subject of crime and burglaries, and the subject of parole was raised again and again by constituents. The current system of offering parole to prisoners is catered for in the Criminal Justice Act 1960 and has remained mostly unchanged for nearly 60 years. It gives full and discretional powers to the Minister of the day as to who is released on parole and when, with the Parole Board acting only in the capacity of adviser. The very fact a Minister effectively has the power to overturn a decision made by the Judiciary is not good practice. The manner in which parole is granted in the State and the fact that ultimate control of this system is given to a politician is outdated and in urgent need of reform.

The term parole in the Irish context is used to refer to the temporary release of longer-term prisoners. However, there is no statutory definition of parole in Ireland. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1960, the Minister for Justice and Equality may grant temporary release to prisoners at any time before they qualify for standard remission or to life-sentenced prisoners who are not entitled to standard remission. In effect, there are two categories of temporary release. These are temporary release granted with a view to the person returning to detention, and full temporary release which is intended as ending the period of detention.

At present, the Parole Board reviews the sentences of prisoners serving eight years or more and makes recommendations to the Minister as to whether the prisoner should be granted temporary release. The Parole Board advises the Minister for Justice and Equality of the prisoner’s progress, the degree to which he or she has engaged with therapeutic services, and how best to proceed with his or her sentence. However, the recommendations of the Parole Board are not legally binding and the decision to release a prisoner is made by the Minister. Furthermore, there are no clear guidelines on the criteria that indicate a prisoner’s eligibility for parole.

According to statistics provided to Members recently, towards the end of 2014, 344 prisoners in Ireland were serving life sentences, 273 were serving sentences of ten or more years, and 726 were serving sentences of between five and ten years.

The length of time served by prisoners on a life sentence increased from an average of 11 years for prisoners released in 2002 to 20 years for prisoners released in 2013.

I welcome the Bill and the proposal that the Parole Board be placed on a statutory basis, with careful consideration being given to the appointment of members of the board. There have been many other calls for this measure to be taken. In 1997 an expert group on the prison service called for this measure to be implemented and in 2000 the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights called for it also.

A study by Dr. Diarmuid Griffin of the School of Law in NUIG has also recommended that the Parole Board be placed on a statutory footing and given power to make decisions on releases. I particularly welcome the aspect of the Bill which pays particular attention to the views of the victim and the fact that the Bill would confer an obligation on any new Parole Board to take account of the views of the victim concerned. The Bill would rightly place an obligation on the Parole Board to supply any information available on the release from detention on parole of a prisoner to the victim and the general public.

The overall aim of the Bill is to create safer communities by ensuring those released back into society are ready for this move and pose a very low risk of reoffending. This would be done by ensuring the members of the Parole Board were from a wide section of representative bodies.

The Bill proposed by Deputy Jim O'Callaghan is to be commended and will I believe be welcomed by prisoners' rights advocates, members of the public and An Garda Síochána, all of whom have cause for disquiet under the existing system.

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