Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to present to the House today the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Bill 2001. The purpose of the Bill is to provide a clearer legislative basis for the power of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to grant temporary release to a prisoner by amending the Criminal Justice Act 1960 and setting out the purposes for which temporary release may be granted, the circumstances in which it is to occur and the criteria which are to apply to the process.

Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1960 is the current legal basis for the power to grant temporary release and provides that the Minister may make rules for the temporary release of prisoners, subject to conditions which may be imposed in each particular case. Rules made under this section include provisions for the imposition of conditions applicable to temporary release and for procedural matters.

Section 2 is a general provision and does not contain any guidance for the exercise of this power. The findings of the High Court in the Corish case, delivered early in 2000, pointed to the desirability to set out more clearly in legislation the criteria that should apply to the operation of the system of temporary release. The net point of the judgment in the Corish case was that there was no power to refuse to consider temporary release for categories of offenders because the 1960 Act did not specify that such a power existed. This arose from a position in which successive Ministers for Justice had specified certain categories of prisoners who are not considered for temporary release, save in exceptional circumstances. These categories included sex offenders, drug offenders and others where a risk to the community was significant or where public revulsion at the nature of such offences was particularly strong.