06 December 2005
Dr. Henry: Unfortunately what I said in June 2004, at the end of the Bill's passage in this House, is even more apposite. While I welcomed the Bill, I was worried about the transfer of unsentenced persons. Unfortunately, we are still in the same situation to date with certain aeroplanes going through Shannon Airport. At the time, the Minister told me that anyone going through Shannon Airport--
An Cathaoirleach: That is not relevant to the Bill.
Dr. Henry: May I compliment the Minister when he said those prisoners would be covered by the Constitution if they were on such aeroplanes? I sincerely hope the Minister will do his utmost to ensure this. It is extremely gloomy that a year and a half after we last debated the Bill we should be continuing with the same lack of information about what is happening to people who may be going through our country.
Mr. M. McDowell: Amendment No. 2 relates to section 8(4) as passed by the Seanad. Section 8 deals with situations where the sentencing state requests the Irish authority to arrange for the provisional arrest of a sentenced person, pending submission by it of a formal request. Such a possibility also exists under our extradition law.
Section 8 provides that the High Court can grant an application for provisional arrest. Subsection (4) sets out the powers of remand available to the High Court once the person has been provisionally arrested and brought before it. Initially, it was provided that the person should be remanded in custody pending receipt of the formal request but as a result of the amendment I moved in the Dail, the court now has the option of remanding the person in custody or on bail.
The amendment aligns the Bill with section 27(6) of the Extradition Act, which also deals with provisional arrest. It has been my policy that, in so far as possible, the arrangements under the Bill should be similar to those which apply in extradition cases. I had already ensured this in respect of the safeguards available to arrested persons when I moved an amendment in this House which inserted section 9(2)(f) into this Bill. This subsection provides that the extensive safeguards available under Part 3 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 are also available to a person who has been arrested under this Bill. The amendment to section 9(4) completes this approach.
The amendment inserted in the Dail has improved the Bill and I am pleased to commend it to the House.
Question put and agreed to.
Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."
Dr. Henry: The introduction of this Bill was an excellent initiative and a sensible decision by the Minister. There is little point in people from abroad serving sentences here or Irish people serving sentences abroad. The primary purpose of prison must be to rehabilitate prisoners in order that they can take their place in society again. It is considered much better if prisoners serve their sentences close to their abode and family in the hope that they will find some degree of stability when they leave prison, although many prison inmates come from most unstable backgrounds.
I have been asked by prisoners in other countries whether it would be possible to ensure that sentences imposed in other European jurisdictions would be more consistent. I have no expertise in this area but I ask the Minster, who will have his own views on the issue, to keep this request in mind when he meets his ministerial counterparts at European Union level. Sentencing policies vary considerably among judges, as the Minister has noted in the past, and between countries. I compliment the Minister on introducing this Bill, which will be extremely useful.
Visit the Irish Government Website for the full text of this speech
