Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have a few former Cabinet members here. To put the Minister at ease, Fianna Fail supports this Bill, which results from an April 2016 High Court decision declaring unconstitutional the law governing the power of the courts to activate suspended sentences. I welcome the opportunity to speak relatively briefly about the Criminal Justice (Suspended Sentences of Imprisonment) Bill 2016 because the Minister has given us a very comprehensive review of the legislation. The main purpose of this Bill is to amend section 99 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006, which is the power to suspend sentence, in respect of the activation of a suspended sentence in the event of the commission of another offence by a person who is subject to a suspended sentence. The amendments are designed to clarify the procedures to be followed by the courts in such cases. The need for amending this legislation arises from a High Court judgment of 19 April 2016 which found certain provisions of section 99 to be unconstitutional. Mr. Justice Michael Moriarty declared key subsections of section 99 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006, as amended under the 2007 and 2009 Acts, unconstitutional on certain grounds, including those allowed for significantly different treatment of persons before the law as far as their rights of appeal are concerned. In his judgment, he said that the fact that there were weekly challenges arising from the operation of section 99 showed that lay and professional persons involved in the criminal law arena simply do not know at present where they stand and that the striking down of the subsections would affect the operation of the criminal justice system on a daily basis and is likely to lead to immediate challenges by affected persons. It was claimed that legislation will have to be urgently enacted to remedy the situation.

This Bill provides that where a person who is subject to an order for a suspended sentence commits a subsequent "triggering" offence during the period of the suspended sentence and is convicted of that triggering offence either during or within a certain period of the suspended sentence, he or she will, following sentencing for the triggering offence, be returned to the court which imposed the order for the suspended sentence to have the matter of activation of the suspended sentence dealt with. It also provides that where a person is returned to the court which imposed the order for the suspended sentence, the court will revoke the order and activate the suspended sentence unless it considers, in all the circumstances of the case, that it would be unjust to do so. The Bill further provides that where a person appeals his or her conviction or sentence for a triggering offence, the court which imposed the order for the suspended sentence will not consider revocation of the order and will adjourn the proceedings until the appeal for the triggering offence has been determined. Under the Bill, the sentences of imprisonment will be served consecutively with the suspended sentence consecutive to the sentence for the triggering offence and where a suspended sentence is activated in part, a new order may be made suspending the remaining part of the suspended sentence. In cases where a suspended sentence is imposed by a court on appeal from another court, the court from which the appeal was taken will consider revocation of the suspended sentence. I appreciate the Minister may have said much of this already but I want to put on the record that my party has considered the Bill and we are happy to support it going forward.