Judicial Committee not yet in operation

national | crime and justice | news report Friday May 05, 2006 19:01 by Peter Kelly - Griffith College Dublin petejmk at gmail dot com

Committee established in 2005 is yet to do a days work while Department of Justice deny that it is any of their responsibility

An investigation has found that a judicial committee set up by the Irish Courts Service, over a year ago, to compile detailed information on sentencing is still yet to begin its work. A source who wished to remain anonymous yesterday revealed that, despite the committee being established in early 2005, ‘advertisements for researchers were only recently placed.’

The process of compiling sentencing information is considered by many opposition politicians as the answer to the problem of inconsistency in relation to court rulings.

When the Department of Justice was contacted regarding the issue of sentencing details, spokesperson Mary Burke said that it did not concern the Department of Justice.

‘The Courts are now an independent body, funded by central government and any information gathered has nothing to with the Department of Justice. It is an issue for the Courts Service', she said.

This however was disputed by the Irish Court Services Media Relations Officer, Mr. Gerry Curran who said that it was only their job to run the courts.

‘Our main concern is to run the courts and ensure that they function properly, not to compile statistics.’

He added that although the courts did compile some statistics regarding sentencing information, this was done purely to provide some basic level of figures to the public.

When asked for a timetable about when the judicial committee would begin its work Mr. Curran was unable to give a fixed date yet seemed assured that once the study had begun, it would be an ongoing process.

‘It’s important that the information available is updated at all times to ensure that we get the most out of it.’

Mr. Curran also outlined the type of figures the study will look at saying ‘The researchers chosen will look at the length and breadth of a certain number of sentences under different categories. They will then work on bringing all this information together and refining it.’

While Mr. Curran appeared genuinely positive about the prospects for both the Courts Service and the judicial committees work, former Labour Party Spokesperson for Justice, Mr Joe Costello T.D. was not.

Mr. Costello said that the detailed collecting of sentencing information was of the utmost importance if the justice system was to progress. He also stated that he felt the unavailability of sentencing information was leading to inconsistencies when judges were passing judgement.

‘Part of the problem is that we don’t have any hard information in relation to sentencing practice in terms of the various categories of crime. Judges have very little to go on as to the type of sentence they should impose for different crimes.’

He called on the government to introduce a system similar to that which exists in Scotland. There, judges can access a database before they impose a sentence and cross reference the case they are hearing with cases of a similar nature that have already been heard and can view the sentences that were passed in these other cases. It has, according to Mr. Costello caused an increased level of consistency in court sentencing.

Mr. Costello was also scathing in his criticism in his response to the Department of Justice’s claim that the collating of sentencing information was the duty of the Irish Courts Service stating that ‘The Courts are not to blame.’

He then launched a stinging attack on the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell whom he claims is failing the justice system and the people of Ireland.

‘He’s never bothered to compile this information which would be useful to give us a picture of what’s going on in the criminal justice system' he said.

Mr. Costello also declared that the failure of the judicial committee to get off the ground was typical of a judicial system ‘operating in an amateurish fashion rather than a carefully organised government department’.

The committee consists of sentencing expert Tom O’Malley, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray and the presidents of the three jurisdictions.

The Courts Service currently only collates information on sentencing under a broad range of headings which are not broken down into individual cases. The new system which was supposed to be implemented by the judicial committee is seen as essential if the latest Judicial Council Bill is to be effective.

The Judicial Council Bill will deal with the issue of inconsistency of sentences in certain case and the education and training of judges.