The Irish Sentencing Information System (ISIS): A practical guide to a practical tool

• Author: Brian Conroy - Paul G. Gunning
• Position: BL, Researcher, Irish Sentencing Information System - BL, Researcher, Irish Sentencing Information System
• Pages: 37-53

2009] ISIS: A practical guide 37

THE IRISH SENTENCING INFORMATION

SYSTEM (ISIS): A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO A

PRACTICAL TOOL

BRIAN CONROY* AND PAUL G. GUNNING†

INTRODUCTION

The Irish Sentencing Information System (ISIS) is a

steering committee designed to plan for and provide information

on sentencing. The Committee consists of a judge from each

jurisdiction and Tom O’Malley, BL, Senior Lecturer in Law NUI,

Galway. The judicial members of the committee are the

Hon. Mrs Justice Susan Denham (Chairperson), the Hon. Mr

Justice Kevin O’Higgins,‡ the Hon. Mr Justice Esmond Smyth,

and Her Hon. Judge Miriam Malone.

In this article we will discuss the pilot project which is

being undertaken by ISIS in the Circuit Court. The ISIS Steering

Committee decided at the outset to collect data for the project by

contracting researchers, each of whom has to date been a barrister

in the early years of his or her practice with experience of

criminal law and procedure, to attend Circuit Criminal Court

sentencing sittings. The first two researchers, Brian Conroy BL

and Patricia Hill BL, were engaged in relation to the project in the

middle of 2006, and began their work by drafting a suitable

template for the collection of sentencing information, under the

direction of the Steering Committee and in consultation with

Circuit Court judges. Once the Steering Committee was satisfied

that a template covering all relevant matters had been drafted,

the researchers began to attend Dublin Circuit Criminal Court

sentencing hearings on a regular basis in order to

gather sentencing information for the purposes of the pilot

scheme. Accordingly, the great majority of the sentencing

_____________________________________________________

* BL, Researcher, Irish Sentencing Information System.

† BL, Researcher, Irish Sentencing Information System.

‡ The Hon. Mr Justice O’Higgins retired from the committee in July 2008, and

the President of the High Court is nominating a new representative.

Judicial Studies Institute Journal [2009:1

38

information currently on the pilot database is drawn from cases

heard by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Having made an invaluable contribution to the initial

success of the pilot scheme, Patricia Hill was replaced as a

researcher on the project in April 2008 by Paul George Gunning

BL, who is also responsible for gathering sentencing data from

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Significantly, the pilot scheme was extended outside

Dublin for the first time in April 2008, when Orfhlaith McCarthy

BL was appointed as a researcher for the Cork Circuit.

In consequence, data in relation to a number of cases processed

by the Cork Circuit Criminal Court has now been posted on the

pilot database.

I. THE NATURE OF THE ISIS

Sentencing information systems have previously been

established in other jurisdictions, such as New South Wales and

Scotland. While the members of the Steering Committee have had

regard to the existing systems in those jurisdictions in considering

the manner in which the ISIS might operate, the Committee has

steered its own course as regards the nature of the pilot database

to be created here. The pilot system now in place here does not

simply imitate one of the various sentencing schemes created

abroad, but rather aims to take what are considered to be the best

aspects of each, and combine these with modifications to suit the

Irish legal landscape. The result is a sentencing tool which is

intended to be entirely descriptive in nature. Salient details of a

broad range of sentences handed down in respect of offences

dealt with before the Circuit Criminal Court are posted on a

searchable database that would be available as a reference tool.

It is intended that the extent to which, and the way in which,

a judge uses the database will be a matter entirely within his or

her own discretion.

II. COLLATING DATA

The Steering Committee decided from the outset that

researchers would deal only with matters in relation to which they