Restorative justice system in place by 2010

THE Government yesterday announced a blueprint to introduce a system of restorative justice to Ireland by the end of the decade.

Tánaiste Michael McDowell announced he has set up a commission to examine the system which provides an alternative to prison and forces offenders to face up to the consequences of their behaviour.

The commission will be chaired by Judge Mary Martin, a vastly experienced district court judge from the midlands, an authority in the area who has been employing such methods on a non-statutory basis in her own courts.

It will also be using the experience gained from two restorative justice pilot projects in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Tallaght in Dublin, which have dealt with hundreds of cases.

Announcing the commission at Government buildings yesterday, Mr McDowell said: “Restorative justice is a victim and community- oriented approach which requires the perpetrators to face up to the harm he or she has caused and repair or make good the damage done.

“It puts the victim at the centre of the process.”

He went on to point out that it will not replace the sanction of imprisonment for serious offences.

As to how to differentiate between cases suitable for restorative justice and those in which a prison term had to be considered, Judge Martin said that an experienced judge would know from “gut instinct”.

Mr McDowell added: “It does involve an instinctive reaction on the part of the judge. If you lay it down as if it were a software programme, it will over-bureaucratise it.”

The terms of reference for the commission include considering community courts.

The Tánaiste is keen for some version of these courts — which administer justice within hours of an offence being committed — to be introduced in Ireland, having seen them at first hand in New York.

The seven-person commission is due to report back to Government by the end of 2008.

Stressing the need to examine this system fully, the Tánaiste said: “The only problem is there has been very little careful analysis if it is ‘fit for purpose’ for general application. A rural area is different from major urban areas where the chances of people slipping off the radar screen is huge.”