THE Tanaiste, Mr Spring, has expressed his confidence that the courts will ensure that accused persons will not be allowed to "languish in jail indefinitely without a trial" if the referendum to change the existing law is passed.

Launching his party's campaign yesterday to secure passage of the November 28th referendum, Mr Spring also denied that broadening the grounds for refusing bail would lead to a situation in which bail would be refused to people accused of minor or petty crime.

Neither would it enable the Garda Siochana, or anyone else, to refuse bail. Anyone refused bail could have a court review of the decision after a period of four months.

The Labour Party would not support this "modest change" if it believed it represented a fundamental breach of basic civil liberties, he said. Amending Article 40.4 of the Constitution would introduce a concept recognised under the European Convention on Human Rights and "will not affect the right to a speedy trial or the presumption of innocence in that trial".

Under existing regulations, the courts can refuse bail if they are satisfied that the accused person may leave the jurisdiction or interfere with witnesses or evidence. The Government proposal would allow the extension of grounds for refusing bail "where it is reasonably considered necessary to prevent the commission of a serious offence by that person".

If the referendum was passed - and there was evidence that the measure had the support of a great majority of people - it would not eliminate crime or the risk of crime, Mr Spring said. However, it would send a "signal" that the people of Ireland were not prepared to tolerate the manipulation of the law by criminals.

The Labour Party will spend £25,000 on its own campaign and will circulate leaflets supporting its argument to every constituency.

The campaign director and Minister of State, Ms Joan Burton, said that while the "vitriol level" was not as high as that in the divorce referendum campaign, the level of alarming claims from opponents of the change was "unfortunately aping the divorce campaign". The proposal was a necessary improvement in the rights of the community and in public safety, she said.

She denied that the presumption of innocence would be affected "at all" by the change. Ms Burton said that the remainder of the bail campaign would be fought on television and radio.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael's bail campaign director, Mr Charlie Flanagan, said that the entire party membership - 17,000 - was now being mobilised to canvass on the doorsteps between now and polling day.

"There is no complacency in the Fine Gael campaign, which must be contrasted with that of the `No' campaign. Those against the amendment have formed a leaking umbrella comprised almost exclusively of lawyers, academics and theoreticians who appear to lack an appreciation of the trauma and suffering experienced on a daily basis by victims of serious crime," he said.

Accusing some of the anti referendum lobby of being "divorced from the real world", Mr Flanagan called on Opposition politicians to become actively involved in the campaign for a "resounding Yes vote".

Fianna Fail is scheduled to launch its campaign for a Yes vote today, and Democratic Left will start its party's drive to promote the amendment tomorrow.