Jim O'Callaghan

The opposition party’s justice spokesperson, Jim O’Callaghan, has introduced a bill to allow judges to impose more severe sentences, The Irish Times reports.

The maximum sentence for the offence has not been updated since it was introduced in the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, even though the law was revised in England and Wales in 1977 to allow for life imprisonment.

Highlighting a case in which a man was prevented from carrying out a murder as part of a gangland feud, Mr O’Callaghan said: “A man was stopped on his way to execute another person and he was stopped from doing it thanks to the good work of An Garda Síochána.

“Had he attempted to kill the person, he would have been subject to a much higher sentence but the fact that the gardaí intercepted him on the way there shouldn’t make this a lesser offence. A serious criminal on his way to commit murder shouldn’t benefit from the fact that gardaí are doing their job very effectively.”