The Criminal Justice Act had been introduced to "garner votes" and claims that it was necessary to tackle gangland crime were "manifestly untrue", a conference on human rights and criminal justice was told at the weekend.
The conference, hosted by the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Law Society, was told that erosions in the right to silence included in the Act would lead to innocent people being convicted of crimes. The Criminal Justice Act 2007 was introduced by former minister for justice Michael McDowell.
Changes introduced under the Act allow for an increase in the period of detention of suspects in certain crimes to seven days, the right to draw inference from a defendant's refusal to answer questions and the introduction of electronic monitoring while on bail.
Leading criminal law barrister Michael O'Higgins SC said that the Criminal Justice Act 2007 had been introduced in the run-up to the general election last May to garner votes and to deliver to the public what politicians thought they wanted.
"The changes amount to a serious diminution of human rights," he asserted. He said that they would affect thousands of offences which had nothing to do with gangland crime.
"One good crooked land deal would yield a bigger gain than the value of all Dublin bills of indictment drawn over a single year. But you don't see too many corrupt land-dealers in the Circuit Criminal Court."
He said that the public were apathetic about issues of human rights and civil liberties. And the gap between the offender - who typically came from a violent home, had low self-esteem and a history of early substance abuse - and the rest of society was wide.
He said that under the legislation more guilty people would be convicted, but more innocent people would also be. "That is an unacceptable price."
Belfast-based Barra McGrory QC told the conference that the curtailment of the right to silence had been introduced in Northern Ireland in 1988 and had had a serious impact on the structure and practice of the legal profession.
He said that solicitors were now expected to be present throughout the detention of clients, both day and night. As a result, smaller firms had stopped taking on criminal work.
Mr McGrory said that difficult decisions would have to be taken in the Republic about what clients should and should not say. He advised solicitors to keep a good note of their instructions and advice to clients.
Dr Maurice Manning, president of the Irish Human Rights Commission, and James MacGuill, senior vice-president of the Law Society of Ireland, both expressed their concerns about the legislation.
Other speakers at the conference included Conor Hanly, lecturer in criminal law at NUI Galway; Sir Geoffrey Bindman, chairman of the British Institute of Human Rights; Prof Tapio Lappi-Seppala, National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Finland; Paul Bailey, director of Blanchardstown Offenders for New Directions; and Claire Hamilton, chairwoman of the Irish Penal Reform Trust.
