Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It does not give me any pleasure to say that this is one of the worst pieces of legislation that has come before this Dáil. Our amendments deal with the removal of presumptive minimum sentences for repeat sexual offenders. The measures being put forward in the legislation do not act as a deterrent and will not in any way have an impact on reoffending. The Minister and everybody in the Department has admitted that in the discussions on the other Stages of this process. The best the Minister could wrestle with was to say that by putting forward this Bill, we are recognising the impact of sexual offences on the individual and on society and ensuring that appropriate measures are available to the Judiciary at sentencing to ensure that crimes can be dealt with appropriately and effectively.

The Judiciary already has such measures available to it. The Bill will not change that. It does not confer any new or stronger powers. If or, presumably, when this Bill passes, the Judiciary will have exactly the same sentencing powers and discretion as at present. Nothing will change in that regard.

Before I go further in dealing with this amendment, it goes without saying that I agree that sexual crimes are some of the worst crimes in our society. Their awfulness is compounded by the situation of decades of relative impunity for sexual offenders, regardless of whether that was because the perpetrators were priests, the result of the State's attitude towards women or whatever. I understand the desire to ensure that sanctions for such offences are as serious as they should be but this Bill does not do that. The prevention of sexual offences, let alone repeat sexual offences, cannot be dealt with lightly by simply imposing longer prison sentences. This matter is certainly too complicated to be dealt with via mandatory or presumptive minimum sentencing.

I wholeheartedly agree that we have a significant problem with sexual violence and with how our criminal justice deals with it, including by means of sentencing. This Bill will not address any of that. It will not deter sexual offenders. This is the worst type of politics for which this Dáil has been responsible. The Government has done nothing about the real issues relating to sexual violence and has come up with a Bill which the Minister admits will not do anything but which makes a contribution in the context of people feeling good that we are doing something about this horrible problem. It flies in the face of evidence-based policy and legislation. For years, organisations such as the Law Reform Commission, the Irish Penal Reform Trust, IPRT, etc., have provided evidence which shows that presumptive or mandatory minimum sentences for any crime are not an effective deterrent. While it might feel like they are, the evidence says that they are not. They are particularly not a deterrent in cases of sexual violence. As Deputy Wallace indicated, the evidence in the context of repeat offending, which is all that this Bill deals with, is that there is even less of an impact.

Between 2011 and 2013, the Law Reform Commission compiled a consultation and a report comprising 457 pages between them and, ultimately, recommended that existing presumptive sentencing regimes should be repealed and that no new ones should be introduced, yet here we are. In 2014, the strategic review of penal policy also contained clear recommendations to the effect that no new presumptive sentencing schemes should be introduced. Its membership included the Department of Justice and Equality, the Garda Síochána, IPRT, victims and probation services. It is not exactly fringe politics. People at the coalface who deal with these issues recommended that no more presumptive minimum sentencing regimes should be introduced. However, the Minister is bringing in exactly that and he admitted on Committee Stage that it will have no impact because, as Deputy Wallace stated, judges can do what they like in any event.

While the Minister is ignoring that, the Judicial Council Bill is floundering in the Seanad. The latter could deal with the one or two individuals in our Judiciary who have shown themselves not to be up to the task with which they have been charged. That legislation is languishing in the Upper House. We know from our experience with the Coroners (Amendment) Bill how difficult it is to see legislation through. We are dealing with this nonsense, which will not have any impact, when we could have used the resources for the Bill to which I refer. This is the worst type of politics. We know that, sadly, Sinn Féin cut a deal with the Government regarding the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in return for proper sentencing guidelines. Proper sentencing guidelines are something the Judiciary could do with and we could deal with them here but we are not doing so because we are playing a game to keep this Government on the road. It is a disgrace.

Apart from that general point, let us look at the actual text. Any Deputy who votes for this and does not support our amendment obviously has not read the text because we have an eye-wateringly complicated formula for calculating minimum sentences and to whom they should apply. It is arbitrary. It is states here that if someone commits a sexual offence that carries a sentence of five years and then commits another sexual offence within ten years of conviction, then a presumptive minimum applies. What if the offender rapes somebody ten years and five days after the first offence? Are we sending a signal to the victim that the violent assault on her is less serious than would be the case if it happened five days earlier? That is ridiculous. The Minister could not reply to any of the points about how he even came up with that mad logic. It is reprehensible. The blunt instrument of legislation cannot deal with the nuances. The irony is that, on Committee Stage, Deputy O'Callaghan provided a well-articulated analysis of how rubbish this Bill is but with the confidence and supply agreement dictates that he must go along with it anyway. As long as we continue this type of nonsense, we will go nowhere and victims will not get justice.

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