Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I give notice to the Deputy due to speak after me that I will not be taking the full 20 minutes. Like previous speakers, I will probably take ten minutes.

I also welcome this Bill. As the Tánaiste stated, it passed through the Seanad and received considerable support. I was not aware that anyone had opposed it. I understand that it went through with the full support of the Seanad. I hope that will be replicated in this House. My party certainly will be supporting the legislation.

Like the Tánaiste and the previous speaker, Deputy O'Callaghan, my party believes that the option of suspended sentences is an important part of the criminal justice system. In circumstances where individuals commit and are convicted of particular offences and where judges have the option of handing down suspended sentences, my party would encourage them to exercise that power wherever applicable.

The conditions attaching to a suspended sentence should in all cases be preventative in nature. In other words, somebody who does not commit another offence should be given that second chance. The conditions should also be restorative. Somebody who receives a suspended sentence must acknowledge that he or she has committed a crime - he or she has been convicted after all - that he or she is under an obligation to either the victim or the wider community and that it is not just a case of staying out of trouble for six or 12 months or whatever. It should be built into the conditions attaching to suspended sentences that such individuals should give something back to the community. That would be beneficial for everyone involved.

I agree with Deputy O'Callaghan that we do not get the opportunity to discuss sentencing very often in the House. We usually deal with legislation related to imposing convictions or providing for offences for breaches of the law. Sentencing is probably one of the most important parts of the criminal justice system. It is supposed to be the deterrent to prevent somebody from committing another crime. It is well established, and the Law Reform Commission and the Irish Penal Reform Trust have published reports in this regard, that simply jailing people is not the answer in many cases. One sends somebody to prison where it is warranted, but even within the prison system it is not a case of punishing them but of trying to rehabilitate them. In many cases it is very unpopular for politicians to say that, but the reality is that this is what the prison system is supposed to do. It is supposed to rehabilitate people and give them the skills and education they may have been lacking prior to being sentenced. Perhaps it is time to have that grown-up debate about sentencing guidelines. Perhaps we must even examine certain guidelines for sentencing. It is certainly not popular to say that somebody who goes to prison should get access to education or training, which somebody who is not in prison might struggle to access because of their circumstances, but it is the right thing to do. It would benefit society in general if we had an open debate on the sentencing issue.

With regard to the legislation, the Minister outlined in detail the differences between what is being proposed and what is in the old legislation that was struck down by Mr. Justice Moriarty's judgment in the High Court in April last year. I am not fully certain about one element, although this might not be the place to ask the question as it might be more appropriate to Committee Stage. However, let us say somebody receives a custodial sentence and part of it is suspended. Does this legislation cover the situation where they serve their custodial sentence, and two or three years are suspended as part of the sentence, and when they are out in that period of time they commit another triggering offence? I presume it does, but perhaps the Minister would clarify that.

One of the areas which we should debate is mandatory sentencing, and I am taking the opportunity to raise this while we are discussing legislation on sentencing. Some people are very much in favour of it, but I oppose it. We have provided for mandatory sentences for certain types of drug convictions. All of the evidence suggests that mandatory sentencing is counterproductive. That might be a piece of work for the Oireachtas committee on justice. The committee is finalising its work programme tomorrow and it is probably too late to include a piece of work on sentencing, but it is something that perhaps I and Deputy O'Callaghan could encourage the committee to examine in the near future. It is an important piece of work because, as I said, we must have that grown-up, mature debate on sentencing. On many occasions when we are discussing criminal justice issues in the Chamber, Members tend to go off on tangents to talk about local Garda stations being closed or other areas of policing and justice that are not really relevant to the legislation under discussion. That is not to say they are not important, but the one area we do not discuss or to which we do not give any consideration is sentencing and, as I and the previous speaker have said, that is probably the most important part. It is the sentencing element of our criminal justice legislation that is the deterrent and the part that could change somebody's life.

Suspended sentences are an integral part of our criminal justice system and judges should be encouraged to use them where appropriate. Again, in the conditions imposed with a suspended sentence obviously the priority is to prevent somebody from committing another offence, but there must be a restorative element built into it as well. We welcome the legislation and we support it. I hope all sides of the House will support it and that it can be enacted as quickly as possible.

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