Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Sergeants, inspectors and superintendents, when it is relevant to them, give evidence in the average District Court if they believe the person before the court is a serious drug offender who will reoffend if released on bail. Their opinions are considered by the court in such circumstances as an acceptable expression of opinion. I thank the Deputy for raising these concerns because the proposed section 2A(6) arose precisely from them. This subsection was added at a late stage in the process to make it clear that we were not tying ourselves to the proposition that expressio unius est exclusio alterius — by mentioning one specific way of proving something, one wipes away all other ways of proving it.

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