Mr. Jimmy Martin:

Just going back to the delay in trials, as the acting Secretary General said, the Government is addressing the ones identified by the Judiciary. Our understanding is that in most cases in the Circuit Court it would be seven to eight months before a trial takes place. That is not actually a delay because there is a period for gathering evidence so one would not expect a trial instantly. Where it is identified to us that there are particularly long delays, this can vary from area to area, we try to address the issue. On the question of bail, under the Constitution there are only three grounds for refusing bail - when a person is going to interfere with justice, normally the witnesses; the person is going to flee the jurisdiction; and, there is the constitutional amendment to allow bail where a person is going to commit a serious offence. It is a matter for the judge to decide in each case what the evidence is to support those grounds. There is a long tradition in Ireland for granting bail. It is not necessarily the same in other countries but the Judiciary decides that. We are addressing bail in two ways.

We had a particular difficulty with burglary where the evidence from the Garda suggests that there are many burglars who are effectively professional criminals who were committing multiple burglaries. They would be arrested by the Garda, charged, released on bail, commit more burglaries and be released again. There was one incident where it happened six or seven times in one month. Our perception is that the Judiciary did not view burglary as a serious offence. It is listed as a serious offence but traditionally-----