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Whatever conclusions can be drawn from the above discussion, what is clear is that the
issue was deemed sufficiently serious by the Oireachtas to warrant a prohibition of such
practice in the Criminal Justice Bill 1967.
The 1967 Criminal Justice Bill sought to deal with this practice of forced migration by
prohibiting the inclusion of such conditions in any order of a suspended sentence as
follows:
Section 50(1)(a)
The court shall, subject to Section 49(4)(b) of this Act have power to suspend the
sentence or fine on such conditions (other than a condition restricting the
person s choice of country of residence) as it thinks proper, (Criminal Justice Bill
1967, writer’s emphasis added).
However, the practices which the Bill sought to prohibit seem to have fallen into disuse
particularly in relation to Irish offenders in the intervening period. Meanwhile, and
particularlysince the 1990s, Ireland had experienced net immigration each year. 127 During
this period the Court of Criminal Appeal addressed the issue whether a sentencing judge
could impose a condition that an accused, who had little or no connection with Ireland,
might be properlyobliged as a condition of a suspended sentence, to leave the jurisdiction.
The Court of Criminal Appeal answeredthis in the affirmative.
Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Bill was never enacted, but matters relating to this were
central to the case of People (DPP) –v- Alexiou [2003] 3 IR 513. In that case the facts
were such that the convicted person had no prior contact with this jurisdiction and had
indicated a desire to return to his home country of South Africa immediately upon release
from custody. The Court of Criminal Appeal approved the sentence of the Circuit
Criminal Court but observed that a time limit on the prohibition of further entry into the
state should have been specified rather than allowing the condition to continue in
perpetuity.
127 An overall population growth of 20% and every1 in 10 workers is foreign born. (Principle Demographic Results, Central Statistics Office, June 2003
available at Internet)
312