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properly supervised and risk concerns that certain offenders should not be given their
liberty.
The Sanction Reviewed
The community service order in Ireland has been the subject of a number of studies
academically and by way of policy reviewsince its inception. The operation of community
service in Ireland was examined by Helena Jennings in 1990 – “Community Service Orders in
Ireland: Evolution and Focus”, who traced the origins of community service orders in Irish
sentencinglawand the implementation of the penal measure.
In 1998 the Expert Group on the Probation Service under the Chairmanship of Mr Brian
McCarthy published its first report which was quite specific to one issue relating to
occupational insurance when it considered the sanction. The Expert Group
recommended:
The Criminal Justice (CommunityService) Regulations, 1984 [Regulation 4(a)] which
require groups participatingin the communityservice order scheme to carryout their
own insurance should be amended. Insurance cover for voluntary groups which
have work carried out under the community service order scheme presents
difficulties. The regulations which require that groups have to arrange their own
public liability insurance is seen to be a problem which discourages them from
participating in the communityservice projects (Expert Group 1998:26).
This recommendation was made seemingly on the basis that voluntary groups were
reluctant to take out separate insurance cover for community service offenders. One
might speculate that voluntarygroups would otherwise provide placements for community
service but were precluded from doing so due to the prohibitive costs of public and
employer liability insurance premiums. This recommendation was adopted by the
Government who provided indemnities to such schemes against claims arising during
placements. (Comptroller andAuditor General – Value for MoneyExamination 2004).
In the years since the Bill was passed into law, there had been calls in the Oireachtas to
broaden the use of community service to allow sentencers to use it in lieu of other non-
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