Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 47:

In page 9, subsection (3), lines 42 and 43, to delete all words from and including "or if any" down to and including "been convicted".

I am interested in hearing what the Minister has to say about this amendment. I am talking about lines 42 and 43 of the Bill. Unless my understanding is incorrect, it appears that, under this provision, when an appeal is heard in the Circuit Court, the judge will be in a position to find persons guilty of offences in respect of which they ought to have been convicted. It is extraordinary that it can be declared a person ought to have been convicted of a charge which, if I am correct, may not have been laid during the original trial. Perhaps there is a good reason this provision should be inserted but it does seem to be an extraordinary power to give an appeal judge: that a person may, retrospectively, be found guilty of an offence in respect of which the judge decides he or she ought to have been convicted and presumably ought to have been charged with, even though neither applied.