Parole Act 2019

Interpretation

2. (1) In this Act—

“Act of 1960” means the Criminal Justice Act 1960 ;

“Act of 2001” means the Children Act 2001 ;

“Act of 2005” means the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 ;

“Act of 2006” means the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 ;

“Act of 2007” means the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 ;

“Act of 2010” means the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 ;

“application for parole” has the meaning assigned to it by section 26 (3);

“Board” means the Parole Board established under section 8 (1);

“chief executive”, in relation to the Board, has the meaning assigned to it by section 18 (1);

“child”, other than in the definition of family member, means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years;

“children detention school” has the meaning it has in section 3(1) of the Act of 2001;

“civil partner” means a person in a civil partnership or legal relationship to which section 3 of the Act of 2010 applies;

“cohabitant” means a cohabitant within the meaning of section 172(1) of the Act of 2010;

“designated centre” has the meaning it has in section 1 of the Act of 2006;

“eligible for parole”, in relation to a person, means eligible for parole in accordance with section 24 ;

“establishment day” means the day appointed under section 7 ;

“family member”, in relation to a victim, means—

(a) a spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of the victim,

(b) a child or step-child of the victim,

(c) a parent or grandparent of the victim,

(d) a brother, sister, half brother or half sister of the victim,

(e) a grandchild of the victim,

(f) an aunt, uncle, nephew or niece of the victim, and

(g) any other person—

(i) who was dependent on the victim, or

(ii) who the Board considers had a sufficiently close connection with the victim as to warrant his or her being treated as a family member;

“governor”, in relation to a prison, means—

(a) the governor of the prison, or

(b) a person who is for the time being performing the functions of governor of the prison;

“Irish Prison Service” means the prison service of the Department of Justice and Equality, which is charged with the management of prisons;

“legal representative” means a practising solicitor or a practising barrister;

“Minister” means the Minister for Justice and Equality;

“parole” means the release from prison pursuant to a parole order of a person serving a term of imprisonment prior to the expiry of that term;

“parole applicant” means a person who has made an application for parole;

“parolee” means a person who is the subject of a parole order;

“parole order” has the meaning assigned to it by section 27 (1);

“prison” means a place of custody administered by or on behalf of the Minister (other than a Garda Síochána station) and includes—

(a) a place provided under section 2 of the Prisons Act 1970 , and

(b) a place specified under section 3 of the Prisons Act 1972 ;

“probation officer” means a person appointed by the Minister to be a probation officer;

“Probation Service” means those officers of the Minister assigned to perform functions in the part of the Department of State for which the Minister is responsible commonly known by that name;

“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner who is for the time being registered in the register of medical practitioners;

“psychiatrist” means a medical practitioner who is for the time being registered in the Specialist Division of the register of medical practitioners under the medical specialty of “Psychiatry” or under the medical specialty of “Child and Adolescent Psychiatry”;

“psychologist” means a person—

(a) who practices as such,

(b) who holds a qualification listed opposite the profession of psychologist in the third column of Schedule 3 to the Act of 2005 or a qualification that is a corresponding qualification, within the meaning of section 90 of that Act, to that qualification, and

(c) following the establishment under section 36 of the Act of 2005 of the register of members of the profession of psychologist, whose name is for the time being entered in that register;

“register of medical practitioners” means the register of medical practitioners established under section 43 of the Act of 2007;

“relevant governor”, in relation to a parole applicant or parolee, means—

(a) where the parole applicant or parolee, as the case may be, is detained in a prison, the governor of the prison where he or she is so detained,

(b) where the parole applicant or parolee, as the case may be, is on release from prison for a temporary period in accordance with a direction given by the Minister under section 2 of the Act of 1960, the governor of the prison from which he or she is so released, or

(c) where the parolee is on release from prison on parole, the governor of the prison from which he or she is so released;

“relevant victim”, in relation to a parole applicant or a parolee, means the victim of the criminal offence in respect of which the parole applicant or the parolee, as the case may be, is serving the sentence of imprisonment to which the application for parole or the parole order, as the case may be, relates;

“victim” means a natural person who has suffered harm, including physical, mental or emotional harm or economic loss, which was directly caused by an offence.

(2) Subject to section 3 , a reference to a victim in this Act shall, where the death of a victim is caused directly by an offence, be construed as a reference to a family member provided that the family member concerned has not been charged with, or is not under investigation for, an offence in connection with the death of the victim.

(3) In this Act—

(a) a reference to a person serving a sentence of imprisonment shall be construed as including both—

(i) a person upon whom a sentence of detention was imposed by a court when he or she was a child where he or she has been transferred to a prison to serve the remainder of the sentence in accordance with section 155 of the Act of 2001, and

(ii) a person who is released from prison for a temporary period in accordance with a direction given by the Minister under section 2 of the Act of 1960,

and

(b) for the purposes of calculating the length of a sentence of imprisonment, or the portion of such a sentence served—

(i) any period of detention served in a children detention school by the person where he or she has been transferred to a prison to serve the remainder of the sentence in accordance with section 155 of the Act of 2001,

(ii) any time spent in a designated centre, where the person has been transferred to the designated centre pursuant to section 15 of the Act of 2006, while serving the sentence of imprisonment, and

(iii) any time spent on release from prison for a temporary period in accordance with a direction given by the Minister under section 2 of the Act of 1960 while serving the sentence of imprisonment other than time spent on such release where the currency of the sentence of the person is suspended pursuant to section 5 of that Act,

shall be included.