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.