Cautioning scheme - Justice chiefs must unify approach

The Adult Cautioning Scheme is due to begin next Wednesday, following consultation between the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Garda Siochána and the Justice Minister.

It is a radical approach designed to free up the courts to deal with more serious crimes.

The DPP reportedly drew up a list of 14 scheduled offences that could be considered “cautionable”.

The proposal initially included being drunk in public, disorderly conduct, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, failure to comply with the directions of a garda, petty theft, simple assault or the possession of cannabis for personal use.

The role of the Garda Siochána and the DPP is to enforce - without fear or favour - the laws passed by the politicians in the Oireachtas.

If a law is not worth implementing, it should be removed from the statute books, not simply left in place to be ignored.

On Tuesday, Justice Minister Michael McDowell indicated that he was in agreement with the overall scheme. However, he was at pains to emphasise that the law in relation to cannabis would remain on the statute books.

“There’s no question of the law being changed,” he said. “It remains a criminal offence to use cannabis in any circumstances.”

It would remain an offence “which is prosecutable when the guards decide to prosecute it”.

Mr McDowell stressed, however, that the caution would emphasise that offenders were “committing a very serious offence”.

He has been rightly at pains to stress that even social users of cannabis are funding some of the most vicious and dangerous criminals in our society.

But letting such users off with a mere caution would not even be interpreted as a proverbial slap on the wrists.

Instead, it would have about as much impact as telling them that they had been naughty, and that they should behave like good boys and girls in future.

Has such an approach ever worked with offending adults anywhere? It could set a dangerous precedent.

In such circumstances it should not therefore be too much to expect that Mr McDowell, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and DPP James Hamilton would get their act together beforehand.

Mr Conroy had sent out a directive on January 15 that those found in possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal use could be let go with a caution.

Mr McDowell appeared to endorse the scheme publicly on Tuesday when he said it would be for the gardaí to decide when to prosecute in such matters.

But later that day the whole thing in relation to cannabis was dropped after a discussion between Mr McDowell and Mr Conroy.

Did Mr McDowell cut the ground from under Mr Conroy by withdrawing his support for the scheme in relation to cannabis?

They seemed to be acting at cross purposes, but then Mr McDowell is rapidly becoming the personification of a contradiction in relation to a number of matters, such as his reversal of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in the case of Frank Connolly, or his threat to have gardaí jailed for leaking information, and then leaking information himself.