Criminal Justice Bill - Legislation should not be rushed

The radical shakeup involved in the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009, which was published this week, has come in for strong criticism from human rights and civil liberties groups. “If this bill were to be enacted in this form, the lawful basis for administration of justice in Ireland would be gravely undermined,” a spokesman for Irish Council for Civil Liberties warned.

The main aim of the bill is to strengthen the powers of the civil authorities to cope with organised crime, which will henceforth be dealt with by the Special Criminal Court. Previously the Director of Public Prosecutions had the power to refer special cases to that court, but this was only done in a small number of instances.

Directing or controlling a criminal gang will henceforth be considered a crime, punishable by a sentence of up to life in prison. Similar legislation – which was previously used only in relation to subversive crime, is being introduced to target top criminals who were escaping the law, because they were getting other people to commit crimes for them.

The new bill also proposes changes in relation to the right of silence. The court will be able to draw inferences in cases where a suspect does not answer “any question material to the investigation.” This may be to cover things like the movements of a suspect on a particular night, but the terminology is arguably too vague.

Henceforth, the word of a garda in court about the existence of a crime gang can be accepted a proof of the gang’s existence. The detention period for organised crime suspects will be increased to the seven days that already exists for drug crimes and subversive matters.

The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) complains that the Government has not demonstrated any necessity to use the non-jury Special Criminal Court, because it has given no instances of any juries being intimidated. But there has been intimidation of witnesses. Thus, it could be argued that the authorities should not simply wait until some criminal walks, because members of a jury were intimidated.

Such arguments could be made to justify the latest bill, but the whole thing is being rushed through the Dáil. Matters relating to human rights and civil liberties are not trifling issues that should be put at risk by ramming legislation through the Oireachtas in the final week of a session.

The IHRC has a statutory obligation to review such legislation, but it only received the bill on Monday night. It is being introduced in the Dáil on Friday and rushed through in the week before the summer break.

Rushing things in this way shows no respect for the IHRC and little regard for the primary function of the Oireachtas. Nobody is suggesting it should take years or even months, but it should not be rushed.