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Criminal Court and accordingly that Court is also precluded from considering community
service as a sanction. The provision of community service for such a wide group of
convicted persons potentially encompassed 80% to 90% of the entire prison population
including potentially deep-end (Cohen 1985) or long term convicted persons, convicted
persons with potential sentences ranging from one to five years and shallow-end (Cohen
1985) or minor offenders convicted and potentially sentenced to imprisonment for a
period fromone week to one year.
When the Bill was discussed in the Oireachtas very few speakers addressed the type of
offences in respect of which community service should be imposed instead of
imprisonment, although many speakers spoke in general terms on the desirability of using
community service widely, especially in cases where the District Court was exercising
jurisdiction. The District Court jurisdiction is fixed by the Criminal Justice Act 1951
where the maximum penalty which can be imposed for an indictable offence tried
summarily in that court is twelve months imprisonment. Without being prescriptive,
Senator O’Leary sought to indicate the category of offenders who might be suitable for
communityservice thus:
If a person robs a bank or commits murder the overwhelming majority of people
will agree that restricting the liberty of that individual is a good thing and we should
have a prejudice in favour of doing that. Of course, there will always be exceptional
cases where it is not appropriate. That type of crime which fits into the period
when young people are trying to assert themselves within the community, trying to
establish what their role is and showing bytheir actions their independence from the
previous generation, results from a desire to showindependence rather than anyreal
desire to break the law. A lot of the joy-riding that takes place is not criminal in the
ordinary sense of the word, but an expression of the desire of these young people to
participate in what theysee to be the good things in life, bybeing mobile, with all the
added social advantages that being mobile confers on those who own cars. These
sort of offences could be properly dealt with in this way (Senate Debates, vol.101,
col.849, 7 th July1983).
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