Seanad report: The Minister for Justice said he and the Attorney General were examining whether they could revisit the strict exclusionary rule regarding the inadmissibility of evidence in court.
Michael McDowell said that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had written to himself and the Attorney General asking them to look again at this rigid rule.
The Minister was speaking in the committee stage debate on the Criminal Justice Bill.
Dealing with a proposed Fine Gael amendment, that search warrants should contain the time and date on which they would expire, Mr McDowell said he would be promptly bringing to the attention of the District Court rules committee his strong belief that warrants should show expiry dates.
Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, said nothing was as maddening for the public as to see a case not get to court or for it to be thrown out because of some defective exercise by a garda of a warrant.
Mr McDowell said there was an exclusionary rule on unconstitutionally obtained evidence. The courts had said that evidence obtained in conscious and deliberate violation of someone's constitutional rights was inadmissible. They had also stated that "conscious and deliberate" included instances where someone had acted in good faith. The rules stated that to execute a warrant the day after its actual date amounted to such a violation.
David Norris (Ind) said he was somewhat concerned at what the Minister had said about the discussions taking place with the Attorney General. While genuine mistakes could be made, he believed there was a requirement on officials to be careful.