Oireachtas probe before criminal trials ‘foolish’

Holding an Oireachtas probe into the banking collapse before criminal trials take place would be “foolish”, former DPP James Hamilton has warned.

The respected legal figure said evidence given to the planned Leinster House probe could be used by those accused of criminal offences to claim they could not get a fair trial.

“The big difficulty, of course, is that if you do have an inquiry coming closely in advance of a trial, you will very much strengthen the argument of defendants that the atmosphere is such that they cannot receive a fair trial,” he told RTÉ.

“In other words, the type of application which Mr Haughey successfully made to delay his own trial from taking place many years ago.

“If we’re talking now about trials taking place next year, I think it would be very foolish to embark on a major inquiry before those trials take place. I think it would be much more to the point if steps were taken to do everything that can be done to expedite those trials taking place and then hold the inquiry.”

The former DPP said the Anglo tapes going public presented a situation for the legal process.

“The more material of that sort there is, the easier it becomes for a defence to make an argument,” he said.

However, Mr Hamilton denied the Irish judicial system was dragging its feet in dealing with figures implicated in the banking crisis.

Mr Hamilton said one of the problems faced by prosecutors in complex financial cases was bringing forward charges that could be understood by jurors.

The former DPP said the introduction of specialist expert juries in such cases would require a constitutional amendment.

“We have to live with the system we have at the moment,” he said.