Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 711: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding a recent judgement of the Supreme Court. [27256/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to informed the Deputy that I obtained Government approval of the text of the Criminal Justice (Search Warrants) Bill 2012 yesterday. Subject to the completion of the printing process I expect that the Bill will be available to Members this Friday.

The purpose of the Bill is to replace, in updated form, section 29 of the Offences against the State Act 1939 which was found to be repugnant to the Constitution by the Supreme Court because it allowed a person who was not independent of the investigation concerned to issue a search warrant in relation to a dwelling (Ali Charaf Damache v. The Director of Prosecutions, Ireland and the Attorney General; 23 February 2012).

The Bill will meet the requirement for independence by providing that an application for a warrant may be made to a District Court judge, or in circumstances of urgency requiring the immediate issue of a warrant that would render it impracticable to apply to a District Court judge, to a senior member of An Garda Síochána who is neither involved in, nor in charge of, the investigation concerned.

In the circumstances, it is not my intention to expand the role of peace commissioners in the issuing of search warrants at this time. The matter will instead be examined in the context of a review of search warrants generally which I have instructed my officials to undertake and which will be informed by the report of the Law Reform Commission on the subject, which is due to be published in July.