Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am not sure, I will check it. The 1984 Act provided for the arresting garda. We now have a different situation. First, videotapes are made of these interviews and, second, there is a different understanding of the right to silence. The right to silence, as I understand it, is a right not to be forced to incriminate oneself. It is categorically different from circumstances where if one advances a proposition at one's trial, somebody is entitled to draw an adverse inference if, when one was asked about that point beforehand, one said nothing. The adverse inference is that the explanation given is not true. If it is true now, why did the person fail to account for it when asked about it?

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