Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 3, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: "Amendment of Children Act 2001

4. The Children Act 2001 is amended, in section 151, by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (3):

"(3) Subject to subsection (4), the Court shall specify, in its absolute discretion, which portion of a period for which a detention and supervision order is in force shall be spent by the child in detention in a children detention school and which portion under supervision in the community.".".

This proposes an amendment to section 15 of the Children Act 2001 to deal with a situation which is, again, incongruous with regard to certain sentences. The amendment proposes a new subsection (3) and relates to supervision orders. It is something I have included because it was in the Criminal Justice (Juvenile Offenders) Bill I tabled, which went beyond what the court mandated in the case last month. There is another lacuna here and we have an opportunity to fix it. This is with regard to community supervision orders. At present the court's hands are relatively tied on these because essentially the portions have to be 50:50. There is no real reason this should be the case, particularly for children. There is an argument to say we should once again trust to the discretion of our highly trained, expert and impartial judges to decide what portion should be inside and what portion should be outside. It is a sensible suggestion. Arguably, it does not strictly come under the purpose of the Bill but we are all here now, we can make a legislative change that makes sense, and let us do it.