Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 531: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his Department has carried out studies relating to the consistency in sentencing for different criminal offences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23872/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government contains a commitment to establish a Judicial Sentencing Commission to formulate sentencing guidelines. In considering the matter, I will be guided by the ongoing work of the steering committee which has been established by the Courts Service Board to plan for and provide information on sentencing. The committee, under the chair of Mrs. Justice Susan Denham of the Supreme Court, comprises a judge from the High, Circuit and District Courts and a university law lecturer with expertise in sentencing law. The project, known as the Irish Sentencing Information System ("ISIS"), involves an examination of the feasibility of providing a computerised information system on sentences and other penalties imposed for criminal offences, in order to assist judges when considering the sentence to be imposed in an individual case.

The objective of a sentencing information system is to enable a judge, by entering relevant criteria, to access information about the range of sentences and other penalties imposed for particular types of offence in previous cases. The Programme for Government also provides for a formal annual review of the stringent new mandatory sentencing regime for drug crime introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2007.

Finally, I should add that in 2004 my Department commissioned research undertaken by Patrick McEvoy BL into the principles applied by the courts in drug cases in determining whether or not to impose the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. The research is available on the website of my Department.