David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. I am pleased to address the House today on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality. I want to acknowledge Deputy Jim O’Callaghan’s role in originally drafting this Private Members’ Bill. Although it has been extensively amended by Government after a massive work programme in the Department of Justice and Equality, its core substance remains the same.

This is important legislation that will put parole decisions on a sound legislative footing and ensure they are made by an expert and impartial body. This Bill received cross-party support in the Dáil and it is clear there is a very genuine commitment in both Houses to progressing this Bill and ensuring its reforms can take place as soon as possible.

While the law sets down very heavy penalties for the most serious crimes, we recognise that prisoners should not be detained indefinitely without any prospect of ever being released. Prisoners, and perhaps most of all those who have committed the most awful of offences, need to have an incentive to rehabilitate themselves. It is very much in the public interest that this incentive to rehabilitate exists. That is why a system of parole, together with other forms of early release, is common across the world. While we might recoil at the idea that a prisoner who has taken a person’s life by an irreversible and abhorrent action should be allowed to return to the community when their victim can never do so, we should remember, of course, that a life sentence does mean life. A parolee remains subject to the parole order for the rest of his or her life and can be recalled to prison at any time if he or she breaches a condition of parole. His or her sentence remains in place for the rest of his or her lifetime. It is very clear that parole should be considered very carefully, and only permitted when a reasonable amount of the sentence, taking account of all the circumstances, has been served.

In Ireland at present, parole is legally granted as a form of reviewable temporary release under the Criminal Justice Act 1960. The current Parole Board comprises members with extensive expertise in a range of relevant areas, including criminal law, probation, psychotherapy, criminology and policing. It operates on an administrative basis and makes recommendations on the granting of parole and the sentence management of those serving long sentences. The final decision on whether to release a prisoner is made by the Minister for Justice and Equality.

It has been a long standing objective of successive Governments to place the Parole Board on a statutory footing. When the current board was established in 2001, it was envisaged that the non-statutory board would operate for a number of years, with a view to the board gaining experience prior to being placed on a statutory footing. The penal policy review group produced a report in 2014 recommending establishing the Parole Board on an independent statutory basis. The Law Reform Commission agrees with this proposal and the former Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, under my own chairmanship at the time, in its report of March 2013, made the same recommendation.

The current Parole Board has done excellent work for very many years, which I would like to acknowledge and thank it for. The reason it is so important that it is placed in legislation is that there is clarity and legal certainty for the prisoner, the victim and the general public about how the board reaches its decisions. The other reform in this Bill is that decisions will be made independently of the Minister. This ensures that decisions on parole cannot be influenced by political considerations but rather can only be made on the basis of criteria which are set out in statute.

Senators will be aware of the growing appreciation of the needs and the interests of victims in the criminal justice system. The Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017 laid down the rights of victims to be given information during the investigation and trial processes and beyond. The Bill before us will complement other measures by enhancing the role of the victim in the parole process, including by allowing him or her to have legal representation. The Government is pleased to support the Bill.

On Report Stage in Dáil Éireann, the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, moved a very large volume of amendments that had been prepared by the Department and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and that have, in my view, ensured that the original policy intention is respected, while also ensuring the Bill is robust and legally sound. The Minister pleased to see the extent to which the Bill and those amendments received the broad support of that House.

Part 1 of the Bill contains the usual provisions on interpretation. Part 2 deals with the membership of the board, its functions and powers. While the members of the board are technically to be appointed by the Minister, the majority will be nominated by State bodies and professional organisations. This is to ensure that the board has the necessary range and depth of expertise to properly make decisions on parole. The board will have experts in law, psychology and psychiatry. There will also be a member from the Irish Prison Service, the Garda Síochána and a probation officer, who will bring their experience working on the front line of the criminal justice system to the board’s decisions. Another member will be from an NGO working in the area of prisoners' rights or prison reform. The remaining members will be chosen on the basis of their expertise and experience.

The board will have the power to obtain reports about the prisoner. For example, it can direct the Irish Prison Service to provide a report on the prisoner’s behaviour in prison and his or her engagement with treatment and education programmes. It can obtain psychological reports on the prisoner. The board can meet with the prisoner, interview him or her and give him or her an opportunity to put forward the case for being granted parole. This meeting or interview can be conducted by two or more members of the board and can take place at the prison. All this will help inform the board’s decision.

The victim will be entitled to make an oral submission to the board if he or she wishes. Currently, the victim is invited to write to the board, and the board takes these submissions very seriously. However, some victims would prefer an opportunity to address the board personally, and the Bill provides for that. Legal representation and legal aid will be provided for both the parole applicant and the victim in the parole process.

The board will make decisions which have a significant impact on a prisoner’s liberty and we know that many prisoners have limited capacity to articulate their case. The victim will be entitled to legal representation and legal aid. This is to help ensure that balance is maintained between the need and entitlement for victims to be heard and respected, and the rights of life-sentence prisoners seeking parole.

The board can make its own procedures, subject to some stipulations. In particular, there is a requirement for these procedures to be fair, and there are certain matters in which the board must make procedures. The board can determine procedural detail such as timeframes and the manner in which notifications are to be made. This allows for a degree of flexibility and practicality.

There are limits on the board’s discretion. It will, for example, have to allow for legal representation. It will have to notify the victim of consideration of an application for parole and give the victim an explanation of how he or she can participate in the process. It will also have to provide the parole applicant with the information it will be considering in coming to its decision.

The chief executive will manage and control the board’s staff, administration and business. The chief executive will prepare accounts for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General and will be accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts and other Oireachtas committees.

Part 3 of the Bill deals with the parole process. The Bill increases the time which must be served by a life-sentence prisoner before being considered for parole to 12 years, compared to the existing seven years. While those life-sentence prisoners who are now being granted parole have, on average, served more than 18 years of their life sentence, the Minister recognises that an initial parole hearing after seven years can cause distress to victims. This increase is something that I hope will go some way toward limiting the distress victims have said they experience currently when they are notified seven years into a prisoner’s sentence that he or she is to be considered for parole, and the upset when this process is repeated a number of times.

Eligibility will be limited initially to those serving life sentences, although the Minister can extend it to other prisoners serving long sentences eventually by regulation. This section also states that prisoners who are serving mandatory minimum sentences are not eligible until the minimum period has been served and sets out how eligibility is to be decided when a prisoner is serving concurrent or consecutive sentences.

The Irish Prison Service will notify the board of who is eligible for parole and the board will notify the prisoner. The prisoner will be asked to confirm that he or she wishes to apply for parole.Parole can be granted by the making of a parole order if three criteria are met. First, the applicant must not present an undue risk to the safety and security of the public, including the victim. Second, the applicant must be rehabilitated and capable of reintegrating into society. Third, the board must decide that it is appropriate in all the circumstances to grant parole. This third limb of the test is similar to a provision in temporary release legislation and the Minister believes it is important that it is also included here. The factors that the board will consider in deciding whether the test is met are set out clearly in the Bill.

A parole order will specify a release date, which may be up to 18 months in the future. Often, prisoners who have been detained for many years may find it difficult to adjust if they are released immediately. This time can be used to prepare the prisoner for eventual release, for example, by transfer to an open prison. A parole order will be subject to conditions that the board considers appropriate, for example, that the parolee does not communicate with the victim, visit a particular locality or commit an offence while on parole.

When refusing parole, the Parole Board can recommend measures that could further the prisoner's rehabilitation or capacity to reintegrate into society or that might mitigate any risk the prisoner might pose to the public. For example, it can recommend that the prisoner should undergo a therapeutic programme or educational course or undergo short periods of temporary release. This is an important aspect of the current work of the board, particularly when it is reviewing prisoners at the early stages of sentences that will continue under the new board. The board can revoke or vary an order where the parolee poses an undue risk to the safety and security of the public or where he or she has breached a condition attaching to the order. Breach of a parole order renders a person unlawfully at large. This is similar to breach of a condition of temporary release and the person can be arrested and returned to detention with the parole order suspended until the board can consider whether it should be revoked or varied.

Part 4 makes consequential amendments to other legislation. Most of these are technical in nature but I wish to draw the attention of Senators to section 41. The latter amends the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017 to provide that the victim should be informed, if he or she has requested it, of any application for parole or the release of the person on parole.

I appeal to Senators to support the Bill. I look forward to hearing their views and to the debate. I look forward to real progress on these important reforms to our parole system.