Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 15, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following:

"5.—Notwithstanding any enactment, provision may be made by rules of court that a warrant issued by a judge of any Court for the arrest of a person shall continue in force until executed or cancelled by the judge or another judge.".

This amendment was also discussed on Committee Stage. I re-tabled it because there is an issue about how to deal with unexecuted warrants. I understand a large number of them exist for trivial matters, which should be cancelled. The problem with them is that once they are issued, there is no mechanism for anyone to account for them thereafter. There is no process where a judge asks what happened to the X number of warrants he or she issued six months ago. No one stands up in court and says an individual named in a warrant was not found or the matter was resolved. There is a requirement for some finality in these matters. I suggest in the amendment that they would continue in force unless cancelled by a judge. In other words, that there would be some requirement for the matter to be brought back to the attention of either the issuing judge or another judge to deal with it.

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