Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. The mission statement of An Garda Síochána is to reduce crime, the causes of crime and also the fear of crime. Restorative justice can tick all those boxes but a recent study demonstrated referral statistics for restorative justice remain at pre-pandemic levels, excluding restorative cautions which have been delivered by An Garda Síochána. This study was carried out by Dr. Ian Marder of Maynooth University's school of law and criminology, who we worked with. Restorative justice was used at a low level in 2019, accounting for only 1% of the criminal justice caseload, but this decreased during the pandemic from an already low level and referrals have not increased since then. Last year we brought the Criminal Justice (Promotion of Restorative Justice) (Amendment) Bill with help from Dr. Marder. It would help promote the use of restorative justice with a clear legislative framework for it. Does the Minister of State accept there is need for a better framework to complement the other projects given there will be more judges, more court sittings and inevitably more prisoners going into an overcrowded system, which is a burden this Bill might alleviate?

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