An examination of parole in Ireland: balancing justice and risk

McCarthy, Shane

An examination of parole in Ireland: balancing justice and risk

dc.check.date	2025-01-11T10:07:05Z
dc.check.embargoformat	Apply the embargo to both hard bound copy and e-thesis (If you have submitted an e-thesis and a hard bound thesis and want to embargo both)	en
dc.check.entireThesis	Entire Thesis Restricted
dc.check.info	Restricted to everyone for five years	en
dc.check.opt-out	Not applicable	en
dc.check.reason	This thesis is due for publication or the author is actively seeking to publish this material	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Fennell, Caroline	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Donson, Fiona	en
dc.contributor.author	McCarthy, Shane
dc.contributor.funder	University College Cork	en
dc.date.accessioned	2020-01-13T10:07:05Z
dc.date.issued	2019
dc.date.submitted	2019
dc.description.abstract	This thesis presents the history of the parole process with particular emphasis on the operation of the Irish Parole Board since its establishment in December 2001, up until June 2019. The concept of parole and the function of the Parole Board is explored. Particular attention is paid to highlighting the challenges associated with the Parole Board’s efforts to strike an appropriate balance, in its decision making, between the administration of justice and considerations of risk, and between considerations of public protection and safety and the nature and the gravity of the offence committed. The tensions that emerge when attempting to reconcile the competing rights and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in the decision-making process are identified and examined. The legal analysis undertaken in this thesis is chiefly doctrinal, with a detailed examination of constitutional provisions, relevant case law and various reports and publications. The thesis also analyses policy, and in so doing, goes beyond enacted legislation and official publications, such as the Annual Reports of the Parole Board. Parole is an area of law that has not received anything approaching adequate consideration in Ireland and does not merit any mention in many Irish textbooks covering criminal law. The existence of only scant research in relation to the Parole Board revealed a clear need for in-depth research in this area, something that this work attempts to rectify. The Irish Parole Board currently operates on a non-statutory basis, in an administrative, advisory capacity only and what is known as “parole” in Ireland has no clear legal meaning. The challenges posed by the current legal status of the Parole Board results in a parole process which can, at times, be somewhat opaque and influenced by both public opinion and political reality and that is subject to the shifting nature of public/political debate within Irish society. This thesis reviews proposed reforms in this area, including those contained in the Parole Bill. It recommends that the Parole Board be established on a statutory basis and for its decisions to be determinative as opposed to advisory. It is suggested that a statutory foundation would provide greater clarity around criteria for parole and furnish a more transparent framework for the operation of the Board, thus providing clear guidance in the decision-making process.	en
dc.description.status	Not peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	McCarthy, S. 2019. An examination of parole in Ireland: balancing justice and risk. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.	en
dc.identifier.endpage	497	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/9490
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	University College Cork	en
dc.rights	© 2019, Shane McCarthy.	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/	en
dc.subject	Parole	en
dc.subject	UN	en
dc.subject	Strategic research	en
dc.thesis.opt-out	false
dc.title	An examination of parole in Ireland: balancing justice and risk	en
dc.type	Doctoral thesis	en
dc.type.qualificationlevel	Doctoral	en
dc.type.qualificationname	PhD	en
ucc.workflow.supervisor	c.fennell@ucc.ie