Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Just before Deputy Jim O'Callaghan leaves, he said that the only miscarriage of justice he was aware of in the Special Criminal Court is the Sallins case. A quick Google search on my phone presented a case from 2021 where a man spent 14 months in prison for IRA membership and the Special Criminal Court subsequently found that to be a miscarriage of justice. The point is that the majority of miscarriages of justice are never identified. It is the tip of the iceberg that we see. If we have circumstances where we have no jury, where people can be convicted based on the word of a senior Garda and on inferences and secret information contained in documents not disclosed to the public and where great power is given to the DPP to try people without a jury, then we are creating a situation with the potential for miscarriages of justice. I also do not agree with the idea that a jury must be in the same room as a judge. I do not see the logic of that. It is better to have a jury that is remotely located and with video access and so on, so they can see without being identified, rather than to have all the problems associated with having no jury at all.

In November, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, stated that a "Special Criminal Court presents an insuperable obstacle to the right to a fair trial". It further stated:

... the continuing existence of a special non-jury court in Ireland is an intolerable interference with constitutional fair trial rights. It cannot be justified on practical or legal grounds. As other legal systems have shown, any problems with jury or witness intimidation can be addressed through other means.

The UN Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International and Mary Robinson have made very similar points. These extraordinary powers allow people to be locked up without the right to a trial by jury, without actual evidence being presented against them and just on the opinion of a garda.

It is very disappointing that the Green Party, having gone into government, has now dropped its opposition to this legislation, previously held on civil liberty grounds. Similarly, Sinn Féin, in preparation for going into government and trying to indicate to the establishment that it will be a safe pair of hands, has also dropped its long-standing correct opposition to the Special Criminal Court. I understand that about one third of Sinn Féin party members voted against this decision at the party's Ard-Fheis. I hope its position will be overturned at the next Ard-Fheis. Unfortunately, it will make people who look to Sinn Féin for radical change question whether Sinn Féin in government would deliver on the radical change they are looking for when the party is so committed to demonstrating it can be a safe pair of hands for the establishment, even at the expense of completely undermining very basic civil liberties.

We are never given any proof that jury intimidation is a significant problem in our criminal justice system. As I mentioned, there are plenty of alternatives if it is a significant problem, but the evidence has never been presented to justify taking away such a basic civil liberty.

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