WP criticises Owen comments

The Workers' Party said yesterday the Minister for Justice had dismissed people who opposed the referendum as scaremongers.

The Workers' Party said yesterday the Minister for Justice had dismissed people who opposed the referendum as scaremongers.

The party asked if former Chief Justices Mr Thomas Finlay and Mr Cearbhaill O Dalaigh were scaremongers when they said in the Supreme Court that refusing bail as a preventive measure was an attack on the presumption of innocence.

There was a double infringement in the proposed change - the presumption the accused was guilty as charged without trial and that the accused would commit further unspecified crime unless interned.

"The people will not be happy with politicians if, in the next few months, it becomes apparent that they were duped into voting for something the consequences of which they had not envisaged."