Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the Seanad. I welcome the Bill back to the Seanad and express my strong support for the move to bring draft sentencing guidelines within the council's remit, and for the creation of a new sentencing guidelines and information committee.This has long been called for by organisations supporting people in the criminal justice system and I would like to pay tribute to those organisations for their advocacy and for the role that the Sinn Féin Party has played in advocating for them to be included in this Bill. Sentencing consistency is so important to maintain public confidence in our Judiciary and it really is a landmark step that we are debating it here, which is welcome.

I also welcome amendment No. 15, which will broaden out the matters in which education and training will be provided to judges on an ongoing basis by the council. I do not propose to speak at length, only to point out that as this is the first we are seeing of the new sections on sentencing guidelines role for the council, I would like to reserve the right to bring amendments to these new sections on Report Stage, after they will presumably be added to the Bill this evening. I would particularly like to mention the new section 75 to be added by amendment No. 77 on the sentencing guidelines, the criteria for selecting the layperson members of the sentencing committee in the new section 20 and the new provisions added by amendment No. 15 on education and training for judges, which could do with expansion.

I would also like to draw the Minister's attention to the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, which does really excellent work in this area to support the judiciary to ensure sentencing consistency and public awareness of and confidence in sentencing. Under the UK Coroners and Justice Act 2009, the Sentencing Council for England and Wales has an analytical role where it monitors the operation and effect of its sentencing guidelines, publishes information on sentencing and practice for the information of the public and publishes information on the cost of different sentences and their relative effectiveness in preventing reoffending. It is also great at doing public consultations with judges, magistrates, victims and witnesses and it sends all its draft guidelines out for public consultation before they are officially adopted, which is something that is really worth considering, which would really strengthen this Bill and could easily be included within the provisions of section 18.

There are also a couple of issues that I would like to put on the Minister's radar for consideration as these proposals move through the Houses. I understand that sentencing inflation has been a problem in other countries that have introduced sentencing guidelines. I really urge the Minister to guard against this now at the start of the process, before it becomes a problem further down the line. Sinn Féin's amendment No. 40 on sentencing ranges could be helpful in this regard, as could Sinn Féin's amendment No. 43, which would give the council a role in monitoring implementation of the guidelines in practice, as would amendment No. 44 on impact assessment.

I would also like to know if the Minister is considering the repeal of mandatory sentencing for most crimes as recommended by the Law Reform Commission in 2013 now that we are looking to introduce sentencing guidelines. Mandatory sentencing is normally used in jurisdictions that do not have sentencing guidelines, so now that we are moving to introduce them, we should look to remove mandatory sentencing so judges can use their discretion in the courts with the aid of the guidelines and without their hands being tied by mandatory sentencing.

Those are just some of the issues that I am looking to progress on Report Stage. I would appreciate the Minister's thoughts on them and I thank him again for bringing these amendments to the Bill. They are very welcome.