Thurles Information

The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, T.D. has today announced the appointment of Ms. Ciairín de Buis as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Parole Board, following an open competition run by the Public Appointments Service.

Ms. de Buis has worked in the NGO and not-for-profit sector for over 25 years. She has led in areas such as gender equality, children’s rights and services for people with disabilities. Currently providing strategic advice to organisations such as Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, she previously led organisations such as Women for Election and Start Strong, as well as leading Extern on an interim basis in 2020.

She has been awarded the Praeses Elit award for her work towards achieving gender equality, and is currently the vice-chair of the Children’s Rights Alliance. She was previously a board member of Sonas (Freedom from Domestic Violence), as well as having served 2 terms as a member of the advisory Parole Board. Ms. de Buis has previously been a member of the National Children’s Advisory Council, and the Expert Advisory Group on Early Years.

A Kerrywoman, Ms. de Buis has a law degree, a Masters in Criminology as well as a Masters in Political Science.

Revealing the new appointment, the Minister said,

“The establishment of the Parole Board on a statutory footing is a priority action under my Justice Plan 2021 and is a key commitment in the Programme for Government. It represents an important step forward in recognising the rights of victims in the cases heard and ensures independent decision making for applicants.

I am delighted to announce Ciairín de Buis as the first Chief Executive Officer of the newly established statutory Parole Board.

As I have said before, transparency and accountability are vital in achieving fairness for victims of crime and rehabilitation for prisoners. In this context the Parole Board plays a vital role in the justice system.
I am pleased to say that Ms. de Buis is an extremely well qualified and high calibre candidate who will be able to bring a huge amount of professional experience to her new role.”

Speaking about her new role as Chief Executive Officer of the statutory Parole Board, Ms Ciairín de Buis said,

“I am very much looking forward to leading the work of the independent Parole Board. Working with my colleagues – board members and staff – I look forward to further developing the work of the Parole Board and delivering a parole system that is fair to prisoners and listens to victims”.

Welcoming the new CEO, Chair of the Parole Board Mr Justice Michael White, said,

“I very much welcome the appointment of Ciairín de Buis as the new CEO of the Board. I look forward to working with her closely in the years ahead, as we proceed to give effect to the principles set out in the Act. I would also like to thank the interim CEO Brendan Eiffe for the significant work undertaken since establishment of the new Board on 1st of August last.”

The Parole Board, established under the Parole Act 2019, on July 31st2021 , is an independent statutory body entirely separate from its predecessor and will make its decisions about parole independently from the Minister for Justice.

The statutory Parole Board considers the eligibility for parole of prisoners serving life sentences once the prisoners concerned have served at least 12 years of their sentence. In addition, for the first time, victims of the crimes of a given parole applicant have a formal right to make submissions to the Parole Board in relation to an application for parole and victims can avail of legal representation to assist with this.

Recognising the progress of the Parole Board to date the Minister said,

“A significant amount of work has already been undertaken since the Parole Board was established earlier this year and it is only right that this work is acknowledged and those involved thanked for ensuring that this important aspect of the Criminal Justice system is available to victims and parole applicants as soon as possible.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the interim Chief Executive Officer Brendan Eiffe, the Chair of the Parole Board, Hon. Mr Justice Michael White, the Parole Board members and the staff of the Parole Board for all their hard work over the last number of months”.

The parole process provided for by the 2019 Act consists of a number of steps that must be complied with before a review of a given case can occur. Information on the process has been provided to applicants and is widely available throughout the prisons estate generally.

Under the Act both victims and parole applicants may have access to legal representation. In this regard the Parole Board is in the process of establishing a Legal Aid Scheme and the Board recently advertised for suitably qualified solicitors and barristers to become members of a legal aid panel. Subsequently a panel of legal professionals has been set up to provide legal assistance where the relevant parties express a desire for this.

The Parole Board website is also now live and can be accessed HERE

In addition, a considerable amount of preparatory work has been undertaken by the Board relating to the new processes, applications and corporate governance and the Minister is advised that the Board will begin making decisions on applications in early 2022.

Budget 2022 provided an additional €0.4m to the Parole Board resulting in a total allocation of €1.74m to support the Parole Board’s important work.

A 48% increase in crimes against the person recorded in the Thurles area in Quarter 3 of 2021.

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has noted today’s publication of Recorded Crime Statistics for Q3, 2021, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). These statistics cover the 12-month period up to the end of September 2021.

Speaking about the latest statistics, the Minister said,

“The latest statistics from the CSO show welcome decreases in many categories of crime. However, we must consider them in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the various necessary public health restrictions that have come with that. And while these decreases are to be welcomed, it is important to note the significant increase in reported fraud crimes and recorded sexual offences.

I also note that the statistics once again show an increase in those recorded as driving under the influence of drugs. I would strongly urge anyone considering doing so not to engage in this behaviour over the Christmas and New Year period as it can lead to real tragedy at what should be a special time of year.“

Fraud Crime

Today’s CSO figures state that reported fraud offences have increased by 72% in the year to Q3. This increase primarily relates to fraudulent attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone as well as fraudulent use of credit and debit card information.

In October, as part of European Cybersecurity Month, the Department launched a major cybercrime awareness campaign, involving Community Gardaí and Crime Prevention Officers around the country providing information to local communities on how to avoid falling victim to such scams. This included local information events, as well as the normal engagement Gardaí have with their communities. There were also dedicated radio advertisements broadcast nationally as part of the campaign.

The Minister stated,

“As Christmas approaches and more people are shopping online, I encourage people to be mindful and not to respond or give out any personal or financial details.

We have all received some of these strange phone calls and text messages over the last few months. Some of them can be very sophisticated and unfortunately it is easy to be scammed out of significant amounts of money. I encourage anyone who believes they may have been the victim of fraud or scams to contact the Gardaí.”

Sexual offences

Today’s CSO figures also show that the number of recorded sexual offences has increased by almost 10% on the previous 12 month period. This increase may relate to an increase in incidents, increased reporting, better recording or a combination of these.

The Minister said,

“The significant and continued increase in sexual offenses is of particular concern. The No Excuses campaign that my department has been running since 2019 highlights that, as a society, we all have a role to play in preventing sexual harassment and sexual violence. The campaign underpins the message that sexual violence and harassment will not be tolerated. We are currently in the process of developing a further campaign to raise awareness of the meaning and importance of consent.

Through Justice Plan 2021 and Supporting a Victim’s Journey, I am working to reform the criminal justice system at every point in which a victim comes into contact with it, and to help victims and vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases.”

To date, a number of key actions have been delivered as part of implementing ‘Supporting a Victim’s Journey’ including: –

• Legislating for the introduction of preliminary trial hearings;
• The nationwide rollout of Divisional Protective Services Units (DPSU);
• The first cohort of staff at a new sexual offences unit in the Director of Public Prosecutions office formally took up their roles in April;
• Work to advance the training for all personnel who come into contact with vulnerable victims is underway;
• As part of the Supporting a Victim’s Journey plan, the Department of Justice recently undertook a review of the Victims of Crime and Domestic, Sexual, Gender Based Violence funding in order to ensure that the grants provided by the Department are as effective as possible in supporting victims of crime within criminal justice processes.

The result of this review is that the Department is now in the process of developing multi-annual funding commitments for those organisations providing court accompaniment and other justice-related services. Additional funding has also been allocated to a number of organisations who were identified where additional funding would allow them to provide further services and to increase the geographical spread of support to victims of crime.

This additional funding is separate to increased funding recently announced under Budget 2022 for combatting domestic, sexual and gender based violence and for supporting victims of crime.

The Department has also agreed to the development and delivery of a significant new national survey on the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland by the CSO. It will look in detail at the experience of sexual violence and abuse for both women and men in Ireland.

Property crime

The statistics show continued welcome decreases in property crime over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Burglary was down 36%, Robbery was down 18% and theft was down 20% compared to the previous 12 month period.

Noting the ongoing Winter Phase of Operation Thor, Minister McEntee said,

“This year’s Winter Phase of Operation Thor commenced on 1 October 2021 and will continue until March 2022. This Operation is designed to specifically tackle the increase in the number of burglaries and associated criminal activity that usually occurs in the winter months by undertaking targeted enforcement and preventative activity. This includes the Lock Up and Light Up public awareness campaign encouraging homeowners to protect their homes over the winter months.

I urge the public to please exercise caution and follow the simple crime prevention advice which An Garda Síochána provides to communities at garda.ie/en/crime-prevention/ in order to keep people safe and keep crime numbers low.”