David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and I have listened to the debate with some interest. Earlier, the Minister agreed that an unacceptable amount of crime is being committed by people who have been charged with other offences and who are out on bail. However, the Government has already introduced changes to the bail laws to tackle this problem. The Minister argues that we need to give these changes, introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2017, time to have an impact and we need to assess that impact before we introduce further changes. Among the provisions of the 2017 Act were amendments to facilitate the introduction and targeted use of electronic monitoring, so that proposal is already on the Statute Book. Much work has been done in my Department and in criminal justice agencies to implement those provisions. The Minister and I are confident that electronic monitoring, when used in this way, will be valuable in monitoring those on bail in certain circumstances.

The primary aim of the Bill before us is to make the refusal of bail mandatory where a court is satisfied that it is necessary to prevent the commission of a serious offence by the person. The Minister is advised that these proposals are inconsistent with the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Because of the constitutional difficulties relate to the main aim of the Bill, namely, mandatory refusal of bail in particular circumstances, it does not appear that any amendment could make the provisions constitutional without also undermining that aim. When considering issues relating to bail, we must also consider that the accused person has not been convicted of the offence. He or she must be presumed innocent and has a right to liberty. These are fundamental rights that can only be curtailed in very limited circumstances. The proposals in this Bill, in the Minster's view, go too far in curtailing the right of the court to consider all the relevant factors before restricting a person's liberty. For that reason, the Government is not in a position to support the Bill.

As the Minister noted earlier, Operation Thor is a concrete example of how investing in Garda resources, including an overtime allocation of almost €100 million announced in budget 2018, has impacted on crime. Following the implementation of the winter phase of Operation Thor, there were 43% fewer burglaries of homes reported in March 2018 compared with October 2017. A significant drop in burglary offences conducted by persons has also been reported since Operation Thor was launched.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae and others referred to victims. Last year, we implemented the Victims of Crime Act. This has gone a long way towards supporting victims. It is not true to say that victims are not considered. I agree with Deputy Eugene Murphy who said that it is important to report every crime, no matter how small, because it adds to the knowledge and intelligence of An Garda Síochána.

Deputy Curran referred to prisons operating over capacity. There are certain pressures on prisons at the moment, partly due to the success of Operation Thor in targeting criminal gangs and roving criminals and bringing them before the courts, resulting in custodial sentences. It is a sign of the success of the criminal justice agencies that the prisons are under pressure. We must keep an eye on this situation.

I accept the aim behind the Bill but, unfortunately, the Government is advised that it is inconsistent with the Constitution. As a result, we cannot support it.

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