Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality what restorative justice initiatives her Department is currently undertaking; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26262/24]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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What restorative justice initiatives is the Minister's Department currently undertaking? Will she make a statement on the matter? From my time in the courts, I remember a case in which the person I was representing had been involved in a burglary in a certain part of Dublin. Communication with the victim of the crime was opened up at the door of the court, which alleviated the fear of the unknown in that the perpetrator and victim were able to talk to each other. Is the Minister considering putting any restorative system in place?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of restorative justice initiatives. As he will be aware, restorative justice is a process that evidence shows can support victims to recover from the impact of crime as well as serving to reduce reoffending. It is an integral part of the work of the Probation Service, which established a restorative justice and victim services unit in 2018. The process helps to identify and repair some of the harm caused by offending. Its value was recognised in the 2020 programme for Government, in which we committed to working with all criminal justice agencies to build capacity to deliver restorative justice safely and effectively. This commitment was carried forward in my Department’s Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform. This was published two years ago and contained a number of actions to strengthen and support the delivery of restorative justice.

This work resulted in my Department’s policy paper "Promoting and supporting the provision of Restorative Justice at all stages of the criminal justice system". The paper brought together all the work carried out since 2020 and identifies the steps needed to strengthen and expand our capability to mainstream restorative justice across all services.

While the Probation Service continues to lead on the roll-out of restorative justice nationwide, referrals can also be made by the courts, An Garda Síochána or as part of ongoing court-ordered supervision, or indeed with people already serving a custodial sentence. It can also be initiated by a victim, if requested and assessed as appropriate. Restorative justice is currently available at several different stages of the criminal justice process and in relation to various types of offence. This includes lower tariff offences as part of diversion as well as post sentence to help meet the needs of people impacted by some of the most serious offences.

My Department has undertaken a lot of work in recent years to ensure the infrastructure to support increased referrals is in place and while I recognise referrals are down on pre-pandemic levels, they are again on the increase, which is welcome.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for the reply. The mission statement of An Garda Síochána is to reduce crime, the causes of crime and also the fear of crime. Restorative justice can tick all those boxes but a recent study demonstrated referral statistics for restorative justice remain at pre-pandemic levels, excluding restorative cautions which have been delivered by An Garda Síochána. This study was carried out by Dr. Ian Marder of Maynooth University's school of law and criminology, who we worked with. Restorative justice was used at a low level in 2019, accounting for only 1% of the criminal justice caseload, but this decreased during the pandemic from an already low level and referrals have not increased since then. Last year we brought the Criminal Justice (Promotion of Restorative Justice) (Amendment) Bill with help from Dr. Marder. It would help promote the use of restorative justice with a clear legislative framework for it. Does the Minister of State accept there is need for a better framework to complement the other projects given there will be more judges, more court sittings and inevitably more prisoners going into an overcrowded system, which is a burden this Bill might alleviate?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Probation Service will soon publish a three-year restorative justice action plan aimed at promoting greater awareness and supporting increased use right across the system. This plan will detail how the Probation Service will further drive the integration of restorative justice into all its services. Restorative justice is really important. We did some very good work back in the 1990s in this area, but it probably has not been expanded in the way we would have hoped since then. That is one of the reasons the Minister and I got the Department to prepare and publish the policy paper I mentioned. There is huge capacity for restorative justice, building on an awful lot of the good work that has been done in other areas of the country in restorative justice. An example is the Cornmarket Project in my county of Wexford, but there is also the restorative justice services in Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and Kildare. There is Restorative Justice in the Community in Tipperary, Laois, Offaly and Westmeath, Le Chéile in Limerick, Cork and Clare and Tuam Community Training Centre covering Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. As I said, many of these were set up in the 1990s and there is a lot of good practice in them. We want to start taking some of the those best practices and seeing them expanded.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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Studies around the Commonwealth system in particular show restorative justice, where properly implemented, has a satisfaction rating for both sides of up to 90%. We all know in District Courts around the country there is an almost ad hoc system where solicitors get together with representatives of the other side and do it on a casual basis. If there was a formalised system in place to deal with cases before charge, during charge and before sentence, it would be a much better way to alleviate the pressure coming on the courts. The alleged offenders can address and repair any harm that is done in a much more expeditious and meaningful way without having to go through the whole court system.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy that restorative justice has huge potential. There are three elements needed, namely, the community, the victim and the offender. For the victim it can have quite a cathartic effect when it is handled right. The Deputy understands restorative justice needs to be handled very carefully. The offender has to be willing and understand and face up to their offence. The victim needs to be willing to participate. Then there is the community aspect to it. We need to have those three points for it to be effective and for the offender to understand the damage they have caused. When we have that situation where the community, victim and offender are brought together it can have a really positive effect on all three aspects of that and reduce reoffending.

As I said, we have published our policy paper and are rolling it out. We want to see a consistent approach to restorative justice in our courts system. I agree, as someone who has practised in law, that it has been done on a bit of an ad hoc basis, but as I said there are really excellent examples across the country. We want to take those examples and ensure restorative justice is available countrywide.