Derek McDowell (Labour)

That is true, but how practical would it be to bring solicitors to Garda stations whenever a witness is interviewed? I accept that they are not as independent as outsiders but section 16's purpose is to clarify that, in certain cases, if one makes a statement to gardaí that is material to the trial of an offence, one cannot ultimately repudiate it without the court considering whether it was true. Its purpose is to give the process a degree of formality because people may express views in the course of interviews about, for example, who they think was present at an incident or who they think threw the stone that killed a man.

The purpose of section 17 is to enable at least more serious statements to be reduced to a statutory form whereby the person is on notice that he or she is making a serious statement which, if false, could attract prosecution. It is not an entirely novel proposition because, as I am sure Senator Tuffy is aware, under section 21 of the 1984 Act, notices can carry a declaration to the effect that one makes a statement believing it to be true and knowing that, if used in evidence and found not to be true, it will render one liable to criminal prosecution. It is not entirely novel because that is a kind of statutory declaration, a formalised statement that carries a warning from the declarant's perspective.