Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

In effect, Senator Bacik anticipated what I was going to say. This is not the Bill in which to deal with this matter. I am not sure if I can provide a commitment to consider it in the context of other legislation because it could possibly interfere with the data collection system, the Irish sentencing information system, ISIS, being developed by the Judiciary with the aid of the Courts Service. The development of said system is being overseen by a steering committee which was established by the Courts Service board and which is chaired by Ms Justice Susan Denham of the Supreme Court. The steering committee is comprised of a judge from each court jurisdiction as well as a leading academic expert on sentencing.

I understand a number of pilot projects have been run in several court jurisdictions, including the Circuit Criminal Courts in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, the District Court in Dublin and the Court of Criminal Appeal. The outcome of these projects is being reviewed and assessed by judges prior to final evaluation and establishment. It is envisaged that in addition to the content which is being compiled, following consultation with the Data Protection Commissioner, the system will contain references to leading cases on sentencing and summaries and links to significant judgments on sentencing law, statistical data and academic material on sentencing. This system will act as a valuable support to judges when they are considering the sentences to be imposed in individual cases.

Moves are also afoot at EU level in order that a common platform will operate across Europe. As already stated, the responsibility in this area lies primarily with the Judiciary on the basis that the information is for use by them in the context of achieving consistency in respect of sentencing. The information to which I refer will also be available to practitioners.