Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I again make the point I made earlier on bail. Before we changed the law, the courts had no power to keep somebody in prison pending a trial. Regardless of how likely they were to re-offend and even if they were certain to re-offend, the courts could not do that. The purpose of the Act was to give them that right. I do not see the point of setting it down — I think it is clear. While I do not want to repeat myself, the law in this regard following the amendment is clear. While I do not follow these matters from day to day, I have not seen anyone make the case that we need to set it down. I would have thought the Bail Act was clear now. If there is a risk of a serious offence, the courts can act. They can do something they could never do before, which is why it was necessary to have the 16th amendment to the Constitution and to have the Bail Act 1997. While it is not a decade on the Statute Book, perhaps legal minds believe there is an argument on it.

On another point, while I have given no thought to this, if we follow the road Deputy Kenny is advocating and prioritise, fast-track or list cases and specify a particular determination why they should be taken, all we would do would be to lengthen what I understand to be an already quite lengthy case list in the Court of Criminal Appeal. It is constantly under pressure for good reasons because of the list. If there is an argument for doing something on some cases, just to create a longer list for everybody else does not seem to be the solution.

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