Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I will elaborate the point a little more as I may have been too short in my explanation. I do not wish to sound like a telegram. It is a common usage in terms of suspended sentences that a person keep the peace and be of good behaviour. In a suspended sentence the court is saying it is letting a person out not simply on the basis that he or she does not commit a further criminal offence but that he or she adheres to a high standard of behaviour and this is put into the recognisances that a person enters into when a suspended sentence is imposed. However, the position is different where somebody is entitled to be at liberty. The person is presumed innocent and is entitled to be at liberty. One's entitlement to be at liberty is not merely conditional on one not breaking any laws but generally being beyond reproach. The Attorney General has advised me that that is a bridge too far as a ground for depriving somebody of his or her liberty, that the person is likely to be below model citizen status. That would infringe ECHR standards as a condition of allowing somebody not to be in prison when they are still presumed innocent.

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