Press release
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee announces pathway towards new Parole Board becoming operational in July 2021
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Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD has today outlined a plan to begin the full operation of the Parole Board and commencement of the Parole Act in 2021.
Minister McEntee’s critical path to the establishment of the Parole Board envisages the new Board being fully operational by July 2021.
The Minister reiterated that this is a strategic priority for her department and is keeping the with Programme for Government promise to “Ensure full implementation of the Parole Act 2019, including the establishment of an independent statutory Parole Board as early as possible”.
The Minister’s plan builds on the significant work undertaken throughout 2020 to further the establishment of an independent Parole Board on a statutory footing.
Upon her appointment as Minister for Justice in June 2020, the Minister put in place a dedicated project team to coordinate, track and drive forward this work across her department and the Justice Sector.
To date, the team has consulted with a number of key stakeholders and an outline project plan has been finalised. This plan maps out a critical path of the various milestones to be achieved from now through to the commencement of the Act and the establishment of the Board in 2021.
The Minister has indicated that she expects accommodation for the new Board to be secured by Q1 2021, with the appointment of staff and the CEO will take place soon thereafter. Further to that, a draft Legal Aid Scheme with accompanying legal procedures and guidance should be prepared in Q2 2020.
Speaking about the work planned for the second half of 2021, the Minister indicated that the goal is for the full complement of Board members to be ready and available for appointment by mid-June 2021, while noting that Board members are not formally appointed until the Act is officially commenced.
The Minister also noted that the development and implementation of a stakeholder communications and engagement plan is an integral part of the implementation process:
"I believe that it is hugely important that all stakeholders, including victims, are kept informed of the progress of the project, and that they understand how the changes will affect them following commencement of the Act.
"I am pleased to say that the project team has now completed a stakeholder mapping exercise and commenced preliminary consultations with some of the key actors.
"A formal plan to include written communications to victims and parole applicants is currently under development.
"I know many victims are waiting on the new Parole Board become fully operational and I am determined this will happen in 2021.
"I am fully committed to establishing the new Board as soon as possible on a statutory footing and to take account of the concerns of victims and survivors. I would be very happy to see a victim’s representative on the Board.
"The project team within my department is working actively to progress the selection of the board members, the appointment of a chief executive and of staff, the development of legal processes and a legal aid scheme, as well as securing an appropriate premises for the new body and a project board has been established in my department to oversee this important work.
"The government has supported this commitment with funding allocated for the Parole Board for 2021 of €1.3 million, which is more than double previous allocations. This substantial increase will allow for the implementation of the model of parole as envisaged under the Parole Board Act.
"The new statutory parole board will considerably improve the system as it currently operates. As mentioned, the Parole Act 2019 puts the parole board on an independent statutory footing and it sets out clear and transparent criteria for how the board will reach its decisions, which will be independent of the Minister of the day.
"The Act also increases the length of the sentence which must be served by life sentenced prisoners before they are even eligible to be considered for parole, from 7 to 12 years."
Finally, the Minister noted that the current Parole Board has a significant case backlog. It is vital this is cleared insofar as possible prior to the establishment of the new independent Parole Board. The project team is examining the establishment of a cross-agency working group to address this.
The final stage of the process will be the drafting and signing of the Commencement Order, which Minister McEntee expects to be ready by July 2021.
While under the current system prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment for murder are eligible to come before the Parole Board after 7 years imprisonment, in reality over the past 10 years, the average sentence served before a life sentenced prisoner is released on parole, is eighteen years, and in 2019 it was 20 years.
ENDS