Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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498. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to introduce or amend legislation in order that judges have the full range of options available to them including community service when sentencing persons from another legal jurisdiction. [41030/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The fact that a person who has committed an offence in Ireland is from another jurisdiction will not prevent a court, when sentencing the person, from imposing the sanction it considers appropriate in all the circumstances of the case, subject to the maximum penalty provided in law for the offence concerned.

An offender who is subject to a community service order will be required to reside in the State while performing the unpaid work required by the order. This is provided for by section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act 1983, as substituted by section 5 of the Criminal Justice (Community Service) (Amendment) Act 2011, which requires a community service order to specify the district of residence, where made by the District Court, or the circuit of residence, where made by the Circuit Court, in which the offender resides or will reside while performing work under the order.

The Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Probation Judgments and Decisions) Bill, which is currently being drafted, will facilitate the enforcement in other EU Member States of community sanctions imposed by the Irish courts on persons who are ordinarily resident in other Member States.

The Bill will give effect to EU Council Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments and probation decisions with a view to the supervision of probation measures and alternative sanctions. The Framework Decision is based on the principle of mutual recognition by EU Member States of judicial decisions in criminal matters. It provides for cross-border supervision of probation measures and alternative sanctions, such as probation, community service, suspended sentences and temporary release. The Framework Decision is intended to make it easier to impose and enforce such measures and sanctions on non-residents by providing legislative arrangements for Member States to recognise and supervise probation measures and alternative sanctions imposed in another Member State.

I hope to publish the Bill early next year with a view to its enactment during the first half of the year.