The Director of Public Prosecutions has called on judges to work towards greater uniformity in sentencing in order to avoid the Oireachtas imposing more mandatory sentences on offences.
James Hamilton said he would much prefer to see judges decide among themselves what tariffs or penalties should be imposed for particular offences, rather than see the Oireachtas bring in mandatory sentences.
"I think the Oireachtas is going to do it in a much cruder way than the judges do it. I think it would be better if judges do it, but if they won't do it I don't think they should complain that the Oireachtas is interfering in their domain," he said.
Mr Hamilton, who was addressing the Law Society at University College Cork, said the the public wants to see some sort of certainty and uniformity when people are convicted of a particular offence.
Last December, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell expressed concern over the apparent reluctance of judges to impose the mandatory 10-year sentence set down by the legislature for anyone caught with more than €13,000 worth of drugs for sale or supply.
Mr Hamilton said that the mandatory 10-year sentence set down in Section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act was not really a true mandatory sentence as it contained several "let-out clauses" whereby judges have discretion over what sentence to impose.
Such let-out clauses had been included because of concerns that the provision might prove unconstitutional.
He pointed to difficulties that could arise with more mandatory sentences by referring to the case of Tim and Ethel Blake from Cobh, Co Cork who would have faced a mandatory minimum sentence if extradited to the US and convicted of kidnapping their grandchild.
The couple had erred in bringing their grandson back to Ireland without the consent of his mother, said Mr Hamilton, but they were not criminals in the normal sense and extraditing them to the US would have meant them facing a mandatory minimum six-year sentence.
Mr Hamilton said he believed that Mr Justice Michael Peart had rightly refused to extradite them because he believed the sentence was disproportionate and potentially unconstitutional.
"They were both in their 60s and a six-year sentence would have been harsh on people at that age who have no previous convictions.
"What they did was in breach of the law, but I have no doubt that that Irish courts would not have sent them to prison . . . If they were sent back to the US, they would have been facing a situation where a judge would have no discretion in sentencing."
