A new pilot website will be launched tomorrow to give an insight into how Irish courts sentence people convicted of crimes.
Irishsentencing.ie is designed to be a resource for people who want to examine and understand sentencing in the Irish Courts.
The initiative, which is sponsored by the Courts Service, is a central point of information on how the courts deal with the many cases before them in terms of the circumstances and legal issues of sentencing.
The pilot study, which has been conducted over the past three years, contains some 1,000 cases, mostly from the circuit courts.
It has a search facility on sentences handed down in various cases, as well as statistics on sentencing case law, the issues surrounding sentencing and summaries of the decisions of the superior courts on sentencing issues.
The initiative also gives a snapshot in time of how the courts treat different offences - such as drugs, drink driving and robberies -who committed them and the circumstances in which they took place.
It was conducted under a committee chaired by Supreme Court Judge, the Hon Mrs Justice Susan Denham.
Professor Tom O'Malley, who is a member of the Steering Committee, said that while the site is primarily a support system for judges faced with selecting a sentence, it will also be fully open to the general public to engage in research.
