David Norris (Independent)

I am concerned at what the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has said about discussions taking place with the Attorney General. One accepts there are cases where genuine mistakes are made and so on, but there is a requirement on the officials to be careful. A lackadaisical approach is unacceptable. This relates to serious principles of law and it gives me great pleasure to open a case to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The case is the Director of Public Prosecutions v. Dunne where the validity of a search warrant, issued under section 26 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, was at issue. The phrase "is on the premises" had been, apparently inadvertently, crossed out on the warrant, so it went to court. Mr. Justice Carney held as follows:

The constitutional protection given in Article 45 of the Constitution in relation to the inviolability of the dwelling house is one of the most important, clear and unqualified protections given by the Constitution to the citizen. If it is to be set aside by a printed form, issued by a non-judicial personage, it would appear to me to be essential that that form should be in clear, complete, accurate and unambiguous terms. It does not seem to me to be acceptable that the prosecuting authority can place reliance on words crossed out by asserting that it was an inadvertence or a slip. [Then he comes to the real principle, where I would be concerned.] Such an approach would facilitate the warrant becoming an empty formula.

Mr. Justice Carney has put his finger on something that would worry me. I accept it is offensive to the public that people appear to get off on technicalities, with search warrants having expired by one minute. We had the aggravating situation recently, of which the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is probably aware, where a judge droned on and on despite counsel drawing his attention to time constraints. He said this was of no concern. He did not give a damn. Counsel drew his attention to the ticking of the clock but he said it was of no concern. That infuriated the public but I believe it was deliberately provocative behaviour on the part of the judge.

Mr. Justice Carney has isolated an issue that is very important. We must be very careful and I am glad the Minister is engaging in conversations rather than making any specific, concrete proposals. I would sound a note of caution on the basis of the case to which I have referred.