A Cavan based criminal barrister has been giving his thoughts on possible changes to the parole process for those serving life sentences.
Seamus Clarke from Bailieborough, was reacting to proposed new legislation, which, if enacted, give judges the discretion to recommend minimum periods in prison for those sentenced to life imprisonment.
In the UK there is a system called the minimum tariff sentence, which means the judge can set the minimum amount of time that the person must serve before they're eligible for a parole hearing.
What is being proposed in Ireland under the Life Sentence Bill 2024 is not as broad as that.
If enacted, a judge would recommend a sentence to be served, which the Parole Board could take into consideration, but the prisoner would still be entitled to apply for parole after 12 years as they can currently.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show this morning, Seamus explained his thoughts on it.
"The one thing I'd say is that there are certain heinous offences that have been committed over the years, certain murder cases where there's just no possibility of somebody getting parole after 12 years and maybe that's why the legislation could go a little bit further because rather than having the victims going through the parole process if there's no real likelihood of somebody getting parole after 12 years because the offence is so heinous and we can think of many examples of that over the years well then maybe the legislation could go a little bit further and that would still be in compliance with the Convention of Human Rights and the Constitution."
