Sir, - The Government has shown its commitment to combating crime in this jurisdiction by many actions, including the legislation on the seizure of the assets of crime, the increased number of judges and court sittings and the extension of programmes to treat drug addicts. Perhaps even more important are the long term initiatives such as the Minister for Education's scheme to halve class sizes in the early years at primary school in deprived areas. The constitutional change proposed by the Bail Referendum is not one of the Government's better ideas.
Paul O'Mahony's article in The Irish Times (November 19th) makes all the arguments I would make, particularly that we have not used the bail restrictions already available. But one serious statement, "research which shows that imprisonment on remand is especially stressful and that remand prisoners are several times more likely than convicted prisoners to commit suicide is highly relevant", is vital to this debate. Also, we know that many prisoners become drug addicts only after they enter prison.
I cannot vote in favour of the change sought in this referendum. Many citizens have been victims of crime, and victims' rights are civil rights which must be enforced. But the same goes for the unconvicted. One of the advantages of being a public representative is the good advice one gets from constituents. As a university senator, I find that many correspondents occasionally include Latin quotations. Recently I was reminded of Virgil's admonition in the Aeneid: Facilis descencus Averno ("easy is the descent into fascism" for those who were in the science stream like myself).
Freedoms hard won are easily lost. The enforcement of our present legislation is what is needed, not more restrictions on the right to bail. - Yours, etc.,
Seanad Eireann,
Baile Atha Cliath.
Dublin 2.