Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I move amendment No. 26:

In page 9, to delete lines 18 to 21 and substitute the following:

"(e) any previous conviction or convictions of the applicant for a serious offence;

(f) any previous conviction or convictions of the applicant for an offence or offences committed while on bail;".

Deputies will recall I accepted an amendment proposed by Deputy Howlin during Committee Stage to delete paragraphs (e) and (f) of subsection 1 of the Bill as published and replace them with a new paragraph (e). I was persuaded by Deputy Howlin that paragraph (e) as published was too restrictive in that it required the bail applicant to list only previous convictions for the serious offence with which he or she was charged and that paragraph (f) was too broad in that it referred to offences committed while on bail rather than convictions for offences while on bail. The result is that paragraph (e) now provides that applicants for bail must include details of all previous convictions and information as to which of those convictions, if any, concerned offences committed while on bail in the written statement that is required to be furnished alongside their bail applications. On reflection I believe paragraph (e) is now too widely drawn by requiring applicants to list all offences including minor offences such as road traffic violations. This might be almost impossible for somebody with a string of convictions. For instance, a bad driver might have collected quite a record on the PULSE system which he or she might not have a diary note of nor be in a position to tell anybody about. It would be almost impossible for someone with a poor record to provide the level of detail and in any event it may be neither necessary nor relevant.

My proposal is a compromise that would require applicants to detail previous convictions for all serious offences and to detail all convictions for offences committed while on bail. The term, "serious offences" is defined in the Bail Act so it does not need to be redefined here.

Deputy Howlin then tendered an amendment to my amendment that would require applicants to furnish details of all serious offences and any other offences committed in the previous ten years. This would include minor offences. The Deputy's proposal, even with the ten-year limitation, is still too wide. It would be virtually impossible for a career criminal ever to furnish details of all minor offences for the preceding ten years. That level of detail would not be of much use to the prosecution or to the court in arriving at a view on the matter. Information that is of most relevance to the court, previous convictions for a serious offence and any convictions for offences committed by the applicant while on bail, are provided for in my proposal and therefore I am not disposed to accept Deputy Howlin's amendment to my amendment. If Deputy Howlin's amendment were to be accepted, the word "other" would need to be inserted before "offence committed within the previous ten years", but this is a drafting point.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh's proposal seeks the deletion of paragraph (g) of the new section 1A. The applicant's history of bail applications is of relevance to the prosecution and the court and it will assist the prosecution in determining whether to oppose bail and the court in deciding whether to admit the person to bail. The nature of any conditions to be imposed could also be affected. It does not tie the hands of the court when deciding on the bail application before it, but it is information that should be before the court and therefore, I am not disposed to accept Deputy Ó Snodaigh's proposal. It should be noted that Deputy Ó Snodaigh made the point on Committee Stage that no timeframe is included for the submission of the statement even though the section allows the court to extend the period for production of same. I undertook to consider that point. Subsection (3) sets out when the statement is to be furnished and I do not propose to elaborate further on that point.

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