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CHAPTER 7
THE SUSPENDED SENTENCE PURSUANT TO SECTION 99 OF THE
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT, 2006
INTRODUCTION
In April 2006 the Minister for Justice Equality and LawReform, Mr McDowell, presented
a series of amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 to deal with a number of pressing
criminal justice issues such as the rapid rise in the use of firearms, issues relating to public
disorder in the form of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and issues relating to consistency in
sentencing. As a result, a complex series of amendments to the 2004 Criminal Justice Bill
were tabled in the Oireachtas which included two sections under part 10 which were
headed “Sentencing”. 151
By far the most important section is the proposal to give to
Judges, as it says in the marginal note, the “power to suspend sentences”. Such a proposal
to empower judges to suspend sentences in a Bill before the Oireachtas in 2004 may
surprise the reader who has read chapters 5 and 6 of this thesis, although as noted, the
exercise of such jurisdiction heretofore in Ireland has been based on an assumed inherent
jurisdiction bysentencing courts in Ireland since before independence andenduring to date
in the Irish Free State and since 1937 with Supreme Court approval (McIllhagga 1971,
Michael O’Brien –v- The Governor of Limerick Prison 1997 2ILRM p.349). As
previously noted, concerns were expressed as to the clear status of the common law
procedure (Whitaker 1995) and proposals were made for the procedure to be placed on a
statutoryfooting(Osborough 1992, LawReformCommission 1995).
Thus, the recent emergence of the statutory suspended sentence under Section 99 of the
Criminal Justice Act 2006, must be seen as an attempt to clarify the status of the power to
suspend a sentence and to prescribe regulations for the making, maintenance and
revocation of such a sanction.
A persistent dilemma facing any researcher when dealing with a topical issue within the
criminal justice domain is the very real possibility that the field of enquiry may radically
151 Criminal Justice Act 2006 signedinto lawbythe President on 16th July, 2006. StatutoryInstrument 390/2006 fixed2ndOctober, 2006 on the Operative date for Section 99 and100.
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