Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 662: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on the need for the introduction of mandatory minimum sentencing as the norm in new legislation to allay the concern of the public, which feels that the Judiciary pursues an excessively lenient sentencing policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14624/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As the Deputy is aware, the traditional approach to sentencing is for the Oireachtas to lay down by law the maximum penalty appropriate to a particular offence and for the courts, having considered all the circumstances of a case, to impose an appropriate penalty up to that maximum. This approach reflects the doctrine of the separation of powers — the courts are, subject only to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of their judicial functions. The Legislature lays down the possible punishment range but it is for the courts to exercise discretion in deciding the punishment while taking account of all the circumstances of the case and of the offender.

However, there are a small number of situations where statute has intervened to create exceptions to this approach. In the case of murder, there is a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. The Criminal Justice Act 1999 provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years imprisonment for an offence of possessing drugs to the value of €13,000 or more for the purposes of unlawful sale or supply unless exceptional and specific circumstances exist in respect of the offence or the offender that would make it unjust in all the circumstances to impose a sentence of not less than ten years.

The complex question of sentencing policy was addressed at length by the Law Reform Commission in its report on sentencing in August 1996, which specifically recommended against the introduction of statutory sentencing guidelines. Nevertheless, I intend to add to the exceptions that I have mentioned above by means of Committee Stage amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill 2004. My proposals include a new offence of importation of drugs to the value of €13,000 or more that will attract the ten year mandatory minimum sentence and provision for mandatory minimum sentences of between five and ten years for certain firearm offences, including possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances, possession of a firearm with criminal intent, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, possession of a firearm while hijacking a vehicle, use or production of a firearm to resist arrest, and modification of firearms such as sawing off a shotgun.

I have tabled these proposals because I believe that the increasingly adverse impact of these offences on our communities is such as to merit the Oireachtas providing sentencing guidelines to the courts to the effect that a specified minimum sentence should be imposed unless to do so would be unjust in all the circumstances. In addition, I intend to provide that when considering whether the imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence would be unjust the courts may not only have regard as at present to certain mitigating factors such as the stage at which the offender pleaded guilty and whether the offender materially assisted in the investigation but also to the public interest in preventing these offences and to whether the offender has been previously convicted in respect of these offences.

Notwithstanding this, I do not consider that the Judiciary can be said to be pursuing an excessively lenient sentencing policy. While this may be the public perception based on a small number of cases that have been the subject of media attention, I do not believe that this perception reflects the reality. Having regard to the multitudinous variety of circumstances in which offences are committed and of offenders, the trial judge is best placed, having heard the evidence, to select an appropriate sanction from a punishment range laid down by the Oireachtas. I consider that this approach should continue to be the norm.