The proposed new Criminal Justice Bill is the third major piece of legislation of its kind produced by the present Coalition, the most recent having been passed only months ago. Several more minor bills have also been introduced by the Minister for Justice since he took office. If legislation could fix the crime problem, it would be fixed by now.
The last Criminal Law Bill took three years to become law, picking up dozens of major amendments along the way, including measures to introduce Asbos, deal with Halloween fireworks and introduce mandatory sentences for possession of firearms in suspicious circumstances. Within a few months it has been deemed inadequate, and another "comprehensive anti-crime legislative package" has been brought forward. Among the new proposals are to allow a senior garda offer his opinion to the court that bail should be refused, an extension of the existing right to detain suspects for seven days, further restrictions on the right to silence and new proposals on sentencing.
There is no doubt that the contempt certain criminal gangs have for the law, and the increasing brutality of their activities, is a cause for serious concern. But these measures have been proposed without any detailed analysis of weaknesses in the existing law or any research into the reasons for the recent escalation of very specific categories of crime. Some measures introduced in the past in response to crime "panics" have quietly become inoperative. And, generally, rushed legislative responses to specific incidents, or a rash of incidents, have not stood the test of time.
When the Minister took office he pledged himself to a policy of evidence-based legislative reform, repudiating knee-jerk responses to ill-informed comment. In keeping with this, he recently set up a Criminal Law Review Group to examine issues like the right to silence. But its very tentative interim report was published with the latest legislative proposals which were put forward even though the group warned that its consultation process was not complete and that it may yet modify its recommendations. There is no good reason, other than the impending election, why reform of the law could not have awaited the outcome of its final deliberations.
The Minister is committed too to consulting with the Human Rights Commission on legislation that will have an impact on human rights, as this undoubtedly will. But how is it to fully consider these proposals in the time-frame proposed? Against this background, the response of the main Opposition parties has been lamentable. They appear to have been out-manoeuvred by the Minister as they seek to shout louder than him. Critical faculties have been abandoned.
Given the short period that remains in the life of this Dáil, the Minister's Bill should be shelved until after the election to allow for a proper debate on an appropriate response to the complex issue of gang-related crime.