Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 45:

In page 7, to delete lines 42 to 49.

The amendment seeks to remove the courts' ability to use spent convictions during a person's trial. As it stands, the legislation allows for a person's history of spent convictions to be used as evidence during a trial, even when the spent conviction may not be relevant to the crime being tried. It is a step too far. A spent conviction should not be allowed to be used as evidence in a trial. The only reason for which a spent conviction would be used in a trial would be to discredit the person on trial. There is a proviso in the text that the court must be satisfied in all circumstances that justice cannot be done except by so admitting or requiring the evidence concerned.

I do not think that is a sufficient protection. I do not think it should be permissible for spent convictions to be taken in as evidence, especially in the trial phase. The only reason they would be used in such a way is to undermine the case of the accused in the minds of the judge or jury. For those reasons, I propose that we delete the relevant power from this legislation.

See this speech in context