Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

This amendment deals with a situation where the Director of Public Prosecutions withdraws proceedings with liberty to re-enter. The amendment would amend the subsection to provide that the proceedings be withdrawn "and the court shall, unless it sees sufficient to the contrary, give, liberty to re-enter".

The Office of the Attorney General advised that the proposed wording is too prescriptive and could be capable, curiously, of being seen to interfere with the Judiciary's independence. We are all very concerned to preserve the Judiciary's independence.

The Office of the Attorney General feels in trying to redress the issue raised by Senator Tuffy, we might end up trenching on the independence of the Judiciary from the other direction. It would be better to leave it as it is for the reasons I mentioned in the Dáil.