Social Democrats may abolish Special Criminal Court

The Social Democrats would favour the abolition of the Special Criminal Court (SCC).

Joint leader Catherine Murphy said keeping the non-jury court would mean accepting that gangland crime is a permanent part of Irish society.

“I think if we accept the premise that the Special Criminal Court is here to stay, then we accept that gangland is here to stay, and I can’t accept that,” she said. “We have to get to grips as to why these things happen.”

She added that more gardaí are often deployed in a reactive rather than proactive way, as was seen this week and after the deaths of two gardaí in Louth.

However, unlike Sinn Féin, which is campaigning for the immediate abolition of the three-judge case, Ms Murphy said it would have to stay in place for some time.

“I don’t think you could abolish the Special Criminal Court now, but I think there is absolutely no reason as to why you shouldn’t aspire to do that,” she said. “It doesn’t fit with international human rights approaches to criminal justice.”

Ms Murphy said the word ‘special’ in the name of the court suggests it “is not supposed to be there as a permanent feature, but it will be a permanent feature unless we start doing things differently and that is picking up that criminality at a much lower level”.

“I wouldn’t want to see in a million years any person, whether they are a witness or a juror, being put at risk by virtue of some of these gangsters intimidating them or worse,” she said.

Ms Murphy was speaking at the launch of the Social Democrats’ housing policy. She was unable to provide costs for the measures, which include increasing rent allowance and decreasing the numbers on the housing list by 10,000 each year.

Responding to reports that Fine Gael is most likely to look to her party to form a coalition, Ms Murphy said it was “mischief-making of the highest order”.

“We’re not chasing seats at the cabinet table, we’re looking for a permanent change in the direction of this country,” she said.

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