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An amendment by Dr Michael Woods, T.D., the opposition spokesman on Justice, to
allowfor communityservice to be made also in respect of offenders where a non-custodial
sentence might otherwise be imposed was rejected by the Minister on the grounds that
community service might then be used as an alternative to fines or probation orders.
However, the Minister for Justice was not for turning on a central plank of the policyin the
Criminal Justice (Community Service) Bill 1983, namely to allow for community service
orders to be made by Courts only in circumstances when a custodial penalty was in
immediate contemplation. He quoted Young (1979) who identified the risk of an increase
in the prison population where such offenders sentenced to community service for crimes
which might otherwise have been disposed of bya fine, would increasinglybe incarcerated
for breach of communityservice orders.
A reading of the Oireachtas Debates leaves little doubt that any newpenal measure which
might in the least way possible increase the burden on the prison system was to be
steadfastly avoided and therefore excluded by all statutory means in the Bill. This was so
even though Deputy Shatter, a member of the Government Party sponsoring the Bill,
made a similar proposal to that of Dr. Woods; the Minister remained resolute in resisting
such broadening of the application of communityservice to penalties other than immediate
custodial penalties.
The Target Group Anticipated in the White Paper and Oireachtas Debates
The White Paper (1981) referred to the use of community service for “suitable offenders”
(par. 3) convictedof offences punishable with penal servitude, with imprisonment andwith
detention. Non-capital murder which carried at that time penal servitude for life and
offences triable before the Special Criminal Court and a court martial would be excluded
from the scheme but it gave no further detail of the precise categories of offences or
offenders who might be suitablydealt with bywayof communityservice order.
The legislation at Section 2 and Section 4 was equallysilent as to the intended target group
of offenders or offences which might be suitable for community service orders, except to
exclude for consideration offenders in respect of whom the penalty for their offences is
fixed by law (Section 2). Section 1(1) provides that “Court” does not include a Special
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