THE Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, appears set to reject the Law Reform Commission's proposal to abolish mandatory life sentences for murder.
Mrs Owen said while she respected the views that led to the report's conclusions, she was "also conscious that there are very cogent arguments why the status quo should be maintained".
Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats strongly rejected the proposal to abolish mandatory life sentences for murder in the report on sentencing published yesterday.
The Garda Federation said it "viewed with alarm" the prospect of any reduction in the current mandatory sentence for the capital murder of a garda.
The report was criticised by the Irish Association for Victim Support for failing to go beyond general platitudes" about victims' rights. Its recommendations were broadly welcomed by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
In a statement yesterday, Mrs Owen said the report's recommendation for the abolition of mandatory and minimum sentences for indictable offences would in practice mean the abolition of the mandatory life sentence for murder and the minimum 40 year sentence for the murder of a garda. "While I respect the views that led to that conclusion, I am also conscious that there are very cogent arguments why the status quo should be maintained.
For example, while it is the case that prisoners serving life sentences for murder will generally not stay in prison until the end of their natural lives, the fact [that they are serving life sentences means that their release is conditional on their good behaviour, they can be monitored by the Probation and Welfare Service when released and returned to prison if their behaviour so requires."
Mrs Owen said her Department would examine as soon as possible certain recommendations in the report and she had already acted on a number of them. She had been examining the question of extending community service orders, she said, and recognised along with the commission the important role of alternatives to custody as part of sentencing policy.
In 1995, more than 1,600 community service orders had been made and there had been almost 4,090 offenders under the supervision of the Probation and Welfare Service, including those on community service orders.
The Criminal Law Bill, currently before the Oireachtas, abolished penal servitude and imprisonment with hard labour and substituted imprisonment for them, as recommended by the commission, Mrs Owen said.
She added that the Government's anti crime package announced last July provided for a major increase in prison places and also devoted extra staffing resources to the Probation and Welfare Service.
The national secretary of the Garda Federation, Mr Chris Finnegan, said that following the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe last June, "any consideration of a reduction in the present deterrent penalty does nothing to inspire confidence".