The professional bodies representing solicitors and barristers have been urged by the Labour Party to express their opposition to Government plans to push major changes in the criminal law through the Dáil in the week after St Patrick's Day.
The Labour justice spokesman, Brendan Howlin, has written to the president of the Law Society, Philip Joyce, and the chairman of the Bar Council, Turlough O'Donnell, to express his disquiet at the fact that the as yet unpublished Criminal Justice Bill is due to be pushed through the Dáil in two days next week.
"I believe that it is a matter of both professional interest and professional duty for both branches of the legal profession also to insist that they must have sight of these proposals in a timely manner and must be given an opportunity to scrutinise them carefully and contribute to this important debate," said Mr Howlin in his letter.
Mr Howlin said that although the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, had announced his intention of implementing significant changes in the criminal law to deal with gangland activity a month ago, the Bill had still not been published. "I do know there will be measures dealing with bail, the right to silence, detention periods, sentencing, DNA and fingerprint samples and also various new offences," said Mr Howlin. He expressed his regret that the legislation would have to be dealt with by the Dáil before the Balance in the Criminal Law review group, chaired by Gerard Hogan, makes its final recommendations on the major issues involved.
"We have now been told that the Government will ask Dáil Éireann to deal with and pass the second stage of this as yet unpublished Bill in two days in the week immediately after the St Patrick's break - the 22nd and 23rd of March.
"This appears to me to be a breathtakingly inappropriate way for the Oireachtas to conduct its business. That assertion does not at all contradict the view that the threat posed by crime gangs is grave or that a legislative response is required. It is our belief, however, that a legislative response requires the legislature to do its job in a way that is both timely and considered," said Mr Howlin.
He said it was totally inappropriate that the Bill would be guillotined through the Dáil in just two days. "Although guillotines are sometimes agreed in uncontroversial cases - particularly when the Bill has been available for consideration for some time in advance - it is clearly an inappropriate way in which to deal with what are intended to be major and permanent but as yet unpublished changes to our criminal law.
"The combination of late publication followed by guillotined debate makes a mockery of the idea of Dáil Éireann as a deliberative assembly. I also believe that the legal profession, both individually and collectively, has a vital part to play in the debate on new legislation. It brings to the debate a wealth of expertise and practical experience," said the letter.
"Yet it seems that you are very often the last people to read about major changes to the laws which you deal with and to the manner in which you go about your jobs. The fact is that no other Government department would deal with the professions operating within the area of its remit in the manner in which the Department of Justice deals with the legal profession."
Mr Howlin said that as Labour spokesman, he would naturally protest at the curtailing of adequate time for examination and debate on this Bill, but it was the duty of both branches of the legal profession to insist on their right to contribute to the debate.
