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“You sayat the outset that this is the amount of time in prison or this amount of communityservice
is to be served and if they breach that, you tell them this is what comes into effect. Definitely a
termof imprisonment”. A1J1DC
“If he decided straight awayor prettysoon into the communityservice order he wasn’t doing it, that
he was thumbing his nose, then he would get the sentence straight away. … I think it would be quite
unfair to impose the full sentence on top of three-quarter compliance with the C.S.O., so in those
circumstances I would try to limp to the end of the community service order by allowing extra
time.” A4J1DC
“Well I would start with the same principle as issuing suspended sentences. I start with the very
simple premise and I say to them that I am not in the cajoling business. I am not in the coaxing
business. I have made my order. I have tailor-made my order as best I can and I give them the
guidance and give them the light at the end of the tunnel and have not dealt with them harshly.
Mindyou, if theyare then brought back, of course I examine the circumstances but theywould want
to be veryreal circumstances before I woulddesist fromre-instatingthe prison sentence.” A7J3CC
These views reflect a wide range of discretionary approaches by the judges to the issue of
enforcement of community service when presented before the courts. But when
considered in their diversity, they might be regarded particularly resistant to any form of
standardised approach to the issue of breach at the court level. Accordingly when one
compares the discretionary practices by the Judges, it is not to be unexpected that such
practices would also predominate at the supervisory level by probation officers in the
performance of communityservice orders.
As noted, in England and Wales the introduction of national standards for the Probation
Service gave rise to an increase in judicial confidence to utilise the sanction more
frequently. Perhaps a similar standardisation of community service in Ireland, if
sufficiently notified to the judiciary, might equally result in a greater use of the sanction.
However, as noted, current judicial practices when dealing with a breach of community
service, are quite variable. Thus any attempt to standardise by strict criteria the
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