Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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247. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding requiring the Judiciary to take account of a young person's age and maturity as a mitigating factor in determining a penalty. [42453/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, judges 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.

In regard to sentencing, the approach of the Oireachtas has generally been to specify in law 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 decision reached in any court case is a matter entirely for the presiding judge and if a person is not satisfied with the decision the judge makes, it is possible to appeal any decision of that judge to the appropriate appeal court.