Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My thanks to the three people who made submissions. I will address my first question to Ms McNally. I congratulate her on her recent appointment as chairperson of the Bar Council of Ireland. She mentioned her concerns in respect of video hearings. Is it her view and that of the council that, for example, bail hearings, contested trials and even sentence hearings are not suited to video hearings?

The Bar Council of Ireland raised concerns about trial by jury. Ms McNulty is probably aware of changes in most circuits throughout the country. In the south-western circuit, for example, criminal trials have been moved to Limerick. The forthcoming trials in Ennis and Tralee have been abandoned so that there is now only one week of trials. Did this show a level of inflexibility on the part of the Courts Service? The decision was made in circumstances where the district courts have all reopened in their original court houses. Yet the Courts Service has not been flexible enough to hire other sports halls so that juries can be sworn in at these locations. Ms McNally said that justice has to be seen to be done. I presume she maintains that it has to be done in the local county if possible.

Ms McNally also mentioned judicial reviews. I know several judicial review proceedings were taken at the height of the lockdown. One related to someone who had been arrested under section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, for something not defined as a serious offence under the Bail Act 1997.

That person was remanded in custody, on the basis that it was a serious offence. Is Ms McNally aware of many judicial reviews taken in the High Court to challenge small criminal or minor cases where custody was as a result? Is she also aware that there was a story, perhaps anecdotal, going around that the Judiciary was told to take a zero-tolerance approach to cases? I am not sure whether Ms McNally will follow me down that road. Did she, however, hear anything like that, anecdotally? Those are my questions.