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standards for sixteen/seventeen year olds sentencedto communityservice orders would
leadto an unacceptablyhigh rate of incarceration of such offenders in a short periodof
time. The challenge for the Irish Probation Service will be to manage such an expanding
cohort of offenders under communityservice while simultaneouslymaintaining the
confidence of the judiciaryto sentence offenders to such schemes. This challenge may
prove to be an unexpected legacyof this newpolicy.
CONCLUSION
In this chapter the emergence of a newform of communityservice order alongside the penalty
establishedunder the 1983 Act has been discussed in detail. This analysis has proceeded
on the premise that a newclass of communityservice order has emergedunder section 115
andsection 116 of the Children Act 2001, but cautions as to the possible separate
operation of such order independentlyof section 2 of the 1983 Act which requires that
communityservice can onlybe made in direct substitution for an immediately
contemplatedcustodial sentence.
The inter-relationship between the Irish sanction of communityservice establishedunder the
1983 Act and section 15 of the Criminal Justice 1972 in EnglandandWales has been
exploredto analyse the extent to which the latter legislation influencedthe former. In
particular, certain statutoryphrasingwhich appeared to allowa wide discretion to the Irish
sentencingcourt was transposed fromthe Criminal Justice Act 1972 in Englandinto
section 3 of the Irish Legislation. While section 2 of the 1983 Act puts speculation as to
judicial discretion beyond doubt, the reference to section 3 of the 1983 Act in the
establishment of the newformof communityservice order under section 115 of the
Children Act 2001, without reference to section 2 of the 1983 Act, mayhave inadvertently
sought to import such discretion.
Consequent upon the de-couplingof communityservice orders from anycustodial
requirement under section 115 andsection 116 of the Children Act 2001 for sixteen and
seventeen year olds, the chapter further analysed the possible wider use of community
service for this group of convictedoffenders. Certain inequities were identifiedbetween
adult andjuvenile offenders in the use of communityservice in this scenario which may
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