Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Senator Brian Hayes raised the provisions of the Criminal Justice Acts on mandatory minimum sentencing and the response to a question put by a Member of the other House which indicated that the mandatory minimum sentence was not imposed in 90% of cases. The Senator also called for a debate on the report of the Barr tribunal, which I will address later.

Senator O'Toole said that when previous criminal justice Bills were being debated, he raised the danger that we were skating on thin ice with regard to minimum mandatory sentencing because such sentences could be open to constitutional challenge on the grounds that it is a judge's duty to pass sentence. I share the Senator's opinion, although we will have to await developments in that regard. Judges are appointed to make decisions on the basis of the evidence put before them and according to their individual intellects.