Ireland facing EU court over rights of suspects and prisoners

Ireland is facing a legal action before the EU Court of Justice for failing to enact EU rules on the rights of suspects and prisoners in Irish law. Picture: File image

Ireland is facing a legal action before the Court of Justice of the EU over its failure to transpose EU rules on the rights of suspects and prisoners into Irish law.

The European Commission has initiated enforcement proceedings against the State over its failure to enact legislation in the Republic to give effect to two EU framework decisions.

One relating to the transfer of prisoners aims to facilitate the social rehabilitation of convicted EU citizens by allowing them to serve a prison sentence in their home country.

It also allows convicted prisoners incarcerated in a prison outside their home country to transfer back to the EU member state where they are habitually resident or to one with which they have close ties.

The second mutual recognition decision not yet implemented in Ireland is the European Supervision Order which makes it possible for EU citizens awaiting trial in another EU member state to return home until their trial begins.

The measure aimed at avoiding lengthy pre-trial detention abroad places the onus on the suspect’s home country to supervise their bail, such as requiring them to report to a police station at regular intervals.

Although the Government has notified the European Commission of draft laws aiming to transpose the framework decisions, EU officials said a draft law cannot be considered a transposition measure.

They pointed out that the deadlines for the transposition into Irish law of the two pieces of legislation were December 2011 and December 2012 respectively.

The European Commission had already put the Government on notice of the possibility of infringement proceedings as it had issued letters of formal notice and a reasoned opinion in the cases in 2019.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, said the Department of Justice is currently “progressing legislation” to give full effect to both framework decisions and is “actively engaging with the European Commission on our ongoing efforts to do so”.

The Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Decisions on Supervision Measures) Act 2020, which was drafted in July 2019, was signed into law on November 26.

However, the spokesperson said a number of administrative and court procedures still need to be put in place ahead of the full commencement of the Act.

The Department said it is confident that the legislation can commence in the first quarter of 2021.

The spokesperson said the Department is also liaising with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to progress the work on legislation regarding the transfer of sentenced prisoners.

Separately, Ireland was also issued with two other reasoned opinions – the penultimate stage before a referral to the CJEU – over its failure to implement EU anti-fraud legislation.

One related to the State’s failure to notify Brussels by July 2019 of the measures it had taken to implement an EU directive designed to combat fraud. 

The other related to the lack of application by the State of EU rules to protect the euro and other currencies against counterfeit notes and coins by the deadline of May 2016.

The Government has two months to reply to the Commission before a decision is taken on whether to refer both cases to the CJEU.