The Government is likely to introduce legislation providing for a parole board, following a Supreme Court judgment last Friday.
The five-member court ruled that existing practice, where courts sometimes set dates when the sentences they have imposed are later reviewed, has no basis in law and is contrary to the Constitution.
This practice became widely known during the Sheedy affair, when Philip Sheedy was sentenced to four years in prison for dangerous driving causing death, with a review date fixed for two years later. This date was later lifted. He then appeared before Judge Cyril Kelly in the Circuit Criminal Court and was released after serving 13 months in prison.
Other less prominent cases have frequently involved apparently lengthy sentences, but with built-in review dates after a relatively short time. This has meant that a crime which generated a lot of publicity could be met with an apparently stiff sentence, which was significantly reduced at the review date.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, said in the judgment that the remission or review of sentences was clearly a matter for the Oireachtas. "As the law presently stands the courts cannot exercise this function in individual cases by reason of the separation of powers mandated in this regard by Article 13 of the Constitution," he said.
It was extremely desirable that any remission of sentence, and any review that might precede it, be placed on a "clear and transparent" basis by the Executive, he said. He noted that the Law Reform Commission, in its report on sentencing, had outlined a number of options for this.
One of these was the establishment of a parole board which would review sentences. Such a review could be based on interviews with the convicted person and reports from the Prison and Probation Services.
The Government could also consider incorporating into legislation a system which operates in England, where there is a statutory basis for partially suspending a sentence. This is intended as an incentive against reoffending.
At the moment an informal group, the long sentence review group, makes recommendations to the Minister on the possible release of prisoners serving long sentences. However, it has no statutory basis, and there is no requirement that its recommendations are accepted by the Minister.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform told The Irish Times yesterday that the Department would study the judgment closely in consultation with the Attorney General.
The Department of Justice is already committed to bringing forward legislation to comply with another judgment, which challenged the Minister's authority to rule out certain categories of prisoner for consideration for temporary release.