Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I second the Second Reading of the Bill. I pay tribute to my party colleague, Senator Regan, who drafted the Bill. It is in the best traditions of this House that Members submit Private Members' Bills. This Bill is timely and relevant.

Senator Regan introduced the Bill to end the practice of criminals avoiding convictions due to a technicality arising from outdated rules of evidence. The Bill will end the practice whereby evidence obtained improperly or illegally by the Garda Síochána is automatically excluded from criminal trials. The purpose of the Bill is to abolish the rules of evidence otherwise known as the exclusionary rule. It provides that evidence obtained by some mistake or oversight by An Garda Síochána is automatically deemed inadmissible in trials. The Bill proposes that admissible or improperly or illegally obtained evidence is decided on the basis of balancing the interests and rights of the accused with the constitutional rights of the victims of crime, the public interest in the prosecution of crime and public confidence in the administration of justice. As it stands, the exclusionary rule stipulates that evidence obtained by a mistake of one kind or another by members of An Garda Síochána which may have the effect of infringing a constitutional right of an accused individual is automatically deemed inadmissible and excluded from court proceedings. Due to the automatic exclusion of such evidence, many cases, ranging from drink driving cases to more serious ones, are dismissed on what is generally termed "a technicality". This prevents the effective prosecution of criminals and certainly destroys public confidence in the criminal law system. Public confidence is the key in that there must be public confidence in our laws and in their administration. Too often, cases involving drink driving and more serious cases have been deemed inadmissible on the basis of technicalities.

To formulate a rule of exclusion based on a mere accident deprives the jury of the ability to decide the guilt or innocence of the accused fairly on the basis of all the relevant evidence. The Bill places the rule of the admissibility of evidence improperly or illegally obtained on a statutory basis and brings it into line with that applicable in other common law jurisdictions, as outlined by Senator Regan. It is not the function of the criminal courts to discipline police officers by the exclusion of evidence. As was pointed out, there are mechanisms for dealing with this that involve other agencies, including the Garda Ombudsman Commission, and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Crime is rife in Ireland today and the sophistication of crime lords is making it increasingly difficult to ensure the effective prosecution of crime. The enactment of Senator Regan's Bill will go some way towards ensuring the effective prosecution of criminals while, at the same time, balancing the interests of the accused with those of the victim and society in general.