Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I understand a transfer will take place only if there is a backlog in one court and a case needs to be listed in the other court. I refer to subsection (7). The decision of a Special Criminal Court to transfer a trial is primarily unappealable. If one of the two Special Criminal Courts decides to transfer a case to the other one, the other court has no choice but to accept. It cannot appeal to a higher authority. What would happen if the second court were not disposed to take a trial thus transferred to it? Why should the transferring court have full jurisdiction? If the second court cannot refuse, the first court could decide to transfer and get rid of all its cases or perhaps all its difficult cases. This seems to be somewhat one-sided.

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