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GAZETTE
B O O K ;
R E V I E W S
NW
JUNE 1993
Irish Social Services
By John Curry, Institute of Public
Administration, 199pp, paperback,
£7.95.
This is the second edition of Mr.
Curry's guide to Irish social services
which originally appeared in 1980. The
author provides an outline of some of
the main social services in Ireland, in
particular in the areas of income
maintenance, housing, education, health
and welfare services. This publication
provides an excellent and concise guide
to the development and scope of these
services. It will be of value not only to
students of public and social
administration but also to all those who
require a broad overview of our social
services. This is all the more welcome
given the comparative dearth of
publications on this area in Ireland.
There have been considerable
developments in most areas of social
services since the first edition of this
book and Mr. Curry has taken the
opportunity to provide a comprehensive
account of the main developments
including such matters as the reports of
the Commission on Social Welfare and
the Commission on Health Funding and
the recent Green Paper on Education.
Some criticisms may be made of the
scope of the book. As the author points
out in his preface 'some omissions are
unavoidable because of the sheer scope
of the areas covered'. However, unusu-
ally for a second edition, this book is
considerably shorter than the first
edition. Indeed one entire chapter on EC
comparisons has been dropped. Thus,
despite the lack of published informa-
tion on social services and social policy,
the opportunity has not been taken to
provide a more comprehensive
overview of the situation but rather a
less
expansive approach has been
adopted. Given the importance of EC
policies and comparisons in the area of
social services, it is particularly unfor-
tunate that this area has been dropped.
The publication is firmly in the tradition
of social administration and, as such,
tends to take an atheoretical approach to
its topics. Thus, while the factual
development of the social services is
explained, there is little attempt to
outline theories as to the underlying
economic or other forces which affect
the development (or lack of
development) of such services. It is
perhaps unfair to criticise the author for
his approach given the introductory
nature of this work. Nonetheless,
students of social policy and social
services will need to be aware that such
underlying issues are fundamental to the
development of services if they are to
obtain more than a misleadingly limited
view of Irish social services.
Mel Cousins
Consultation Paper on
Sentencing
Law Reform Commission, 1993, 400pp,
paperback, £20.00.
It was
Carl Gustav
Jung who
formulated the principle of psychic
inertia. The response of a personality
towards situations and events will
continue to be similar with those in the
past unless some event occurs, or some
eruption from the sub-conscience
intervenes, which brings about a
fundamental change in reaction or
attitude. In one respect that eruption has
occurred within Irish society. Whatever
else politicians now fear, they certainly
fear the influence of women. Since 1922
an accused person has enjoyed the
widest possible access to appellate
courts to review both sentence and
conviction, whereas the prosecution
have enjoyed no rights at all. Scandals
and complaints were ignored by the
legislature until, in quick succession,
the Lavinia Kerwick rape case and the
Kilkenny incest case herded the
politicians into minimal action on
sentencing. With the passing of the
Criminal Justice Act, 1993, the
prosecution will enjoy the right to
appeal lenient sentences in respect of
offences involving violence or sexual
misconduct. A recommendation,
therefore, made by the Law Reform
Commission in its Consultation Paper
on Sentencing has already, in effect,
been implemented. This constitutes a
record in reverse, the normal situation
being the complete disregard of Law
Reform Commission recommendations,
the watering down or the dusting-off of
reports after many years of neglect.
Judges can often be heard to say that
"all cases are different". This is not so.
A person found guilty of rape is
different from a person found guilty of a
serious fraud offence. Within each of
these offences there is room for
variation as to age, background,
motivation for the offence,
psychological make up, regret over the
harm done to the victim of the offence,
attitude to the charge and prospects for
rehabilitation. There is, however, "a
bottom line" whereby a rapist would
need the most extraordinary
circumstances to justify the non-
imposition of a custodial sentence
whereas a fraudster might not.
Those sentences which attract attention
by newspapers are unusual. They are
used, however, to promote a particular
media view which often lacks the
mechanism of self-scrutiny. Be that as it
may, the list of sentences published in
respect of serious sexual offences last
summer in the
Sunday Tribune
, in the
wake of the Lavinia Kerwick rape case,
indicated a lack of uniformity of
approach. It is obvious that were one
judge to be given the task of sentencing
every offender, broadly similar
approaches would become discernible.
Where sentencing is split between
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