Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur ar an mBille seo. Sinn Féin does not oppose the legislation, the purpose of which is to address the problems associated with the significant increase in the number of cases coming before the High Court, including judicial reviews, medical negligence cases, asylum applications and company law-related applications. However, it would prove more fruitful to tackle the causes of these problems before they reach court. Inaccurate measurement and mapping continue to cause more property disputes to come before the courts. Newly digitised property boundaries are not the same as paper maps. This means the efficiency savings associated with digitisation are absent. Landowners cannot trust newly digitised boundaries, instead having to physically check boundaries on the ground, which entails the cost of employing qualified and competent surveyors. As a result, digitisation receives unjust criticism, although not surprisingly, given this incompetent and rushed panacea at the behest of the Government. Time and democratic scrutiny are essential to ensure flawed procedures and regulations are not endorsed by the Houses.

With regard to medical negligence cases, the culture of defend and deny results in more cases going to court and, ultimately, more tax revenue being used by the State on legal fees. Sinn Féin encourages mediation in a calmer and less adversarial manner to address the lengthy traumatic, unwieldy and, ultimately, highly expensive medical negligence legal system. We have consistently advocated on the need for the mediation Bill to be brought forward, but it languishes somewhere in the Department of Justice and Equality, expeditiously abandoned for electoral purposes.

The Special Criminal Court is not a symbol of success but a concrete example of failure. The fact that accused citizens can be convicted of an offence not on specific evidence but on the word of individual gardaí and the secret submission of "evidence" that is not open for the defendant to examine and refute is offensive to all democratic sensibilities. The court is entirely unacceptable and should be closed.

Meaningful change can be achieved in the court system by introducing a sentencing council in the State. Such a council operates in other jurisdictions and provides sentencing guidelines for the judiciary. This has ensured sentences handed down for criminal offences in their courts are consistent and accountable across the board. Concern has arisen in recent years about the perceived inconsistency of sentencing in the courts here. Sentences handed down for sexual offences have been of particular concern and controversy. Sinn Féin has examined other sentencing council models and believes this model of consistency and accountability should be introduced in the State. A key strength is that the models involves a range of key stakeholders such as victim support groups, academics, senior police officers, senior parole officers and the public in the process of establishing sentencing guidelines for the judiciary. As members of the judiciary are the majority members of the sentencing council and a senior member of the judiciary chairs the council, they are still central to the process. However, the guidelines issued ensure members of the judiciary must stick to the range provided for the category of offence before them. They must also clearly indicate why they have sentenced an offender within that range taking into consideration the impact on the victim and the blameworthiness of the offender. This ensures consistency and accountability across the court system and the state.

Ba mhaith liom go dtógfadh an tAire sin ar bord agus go ndéanfadh sí macnamh faoi na moltaí breise atá déanta againn. Ní bheidh muid ag cur i gcoinne an Bhille um tráthnóna.