Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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275. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to review mandatory sentencing (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48945/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The mandatory sentence for murder is life imprisonment, as provided by section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1990. A sentence of life imprisonment means that the prisoner is subject to that sentence for the rest of his or her life. Such a prisoner has no right to be released early at any stage. If granted temporary release, the prisoner remains subject to the life sentence and can be recalled to prison at any stage. Currently a person sentenced to life is, on average, likely to spend 17-18 years in prison before receiving any extended period of temporary release. The offence of manslaughter does not attract a mandatory sentence but is punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment.

As the Deputy will appreciate, the courts are independent in the matter of sentencing, as in other matters concerning the exercise of judicial functions, subject only to the Constitution and the law. The approach of the Oireachtas has generally been to specify in statute a maximum penalty for an offence, so that a court, having considered all the circumstances of a case, may impose an appropriate penalty up to that maximum. The court is required to impose a sentence which is proportionate not only to the crime but to the individual offender, in that process identifying where on the sentencing range the particular case should lie and then applying any mitigating factors which may be present.

The prescription of mandatory prison terms in legislation is an exception to this general approach. I would draw the Deputy's attention to the Law Reform Commission 2013 Report on Mandatory Sentences, which recommends the repeal of existing presumptive mandatory minimum sentence provisions for various drugs and firearms offences. I would also draw the Deputy's attention to the Report on the Strategic Review of Penal Policy, published in September, which recommended that no further mandatory sentences or presumptive minimum sentences should be introduced.