Justice plan includes reform of life sentences and domestic violence laws

Tackling insurance costs, providing for the use of body-worn cameras by gardaí and a new rural safety plan also in pipeline

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has published a new justice reform plan she said  will “help us contribute to prioritise and deliver the work that will make a real difference for people in Ireland both in the short and the long term”.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has published a new justice reform plan.

The Justice 2022 plan sets out her department's goals for the year including reforming of life sentences, action on domestic violence, tackling insurance costs, providing for the use of body-worn cameras by gardaí and a new rural safety plan.

Also included in the plan are new laws to “break the link between gangs and the children they exploit”, including criminalising the grooming of children, increasing the sentence for conspiracy to murder and rolling out more community intervention programmes.

Ms McEntee said this plan will “help us contribute to prioritise and deliver the work that will make a real difference for people in Ireland both in the short and the long term”.

This action plan sets out 159 actions to be delivered in 2022 as well as the priority of managing the consequences arising in the Justice sphere from the invasion of Ukraine.

Citing the Justice Plan for 2021, the Department said that a number of reforms had either been completed already or are being progressed this year.

This includes the opening of the regularisation scheme for thousands of undocumented migrants, tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence through the plan to help victims and vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases and reform of Ireland’s “antiquated” licencing laws.

The plan for 2022 sets out actions set to be taken to achieve five particular goals.

The first goal centres on tackling crime, enhancing national security and transforming policing.

This will include a new national action plan to combat human trafficking. Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Ms McEntee said legislation was being progressed here as a “priority”.

“At the moment, if you’re a victim of trafficking, the only route for you is to go to An Garda Síochána,” she said. “For many people, where they’ve come from and what they’ve gone through, the gardaí are not necessarily the people they would speak to.

So this opens it up to the immigration service, to International Protection, the HSE, Tusla, Social Protection and other avenues.

Other actions aimed at this first goal include the publication of a hate crime bill with specific hate aggravated offences for crimes motivated by prejudice and tougher sentences alongside it, as well as a scheme to disregard the convictions of people convicted of consensual same-sex activity prior to decrminalisation.

Other goals in the Justice Plan 2022 include improving access to justice and moderning the courts system, combatting domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and delivering a “fair immigration system for the digital age”.

The fifth goal centres on “accelerating innovation, digital transformation and climate action across the justice sector”.

Regarding domestic violence, the department intends to strengthen the monitoring arrangements for convicted sex offenders and plans to establish a statutory domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency to ensure delivery of the Third National Strategy in this area.

The Department said it would continue to play a “lead role” in Ireland’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and would also continue to grant permissions under the Afghan admission programme.

Ms McEntee added: ““We will continue to support An Garda Síochána in its centenary year in protecting our communities from crime through increased resourcing, investment in diversity, training and technology.

Work will also progress to reform the courts system and increase efficiency while creating a family courts system that is less adversarial and more sensitive to the needs of families. Tackling the cost of insurance will also be a focus.

“And I also believe in a criminal justice system where the sentence matches the crime and I will bring forward proposals to reform the law in relation to life sentences.”