The new president of the Law Society has cautioned against a "knee-jerk reaction" to the collapse of the Liam Keane trial earlier this week.
Mr Gerard Griffin, a managing partner in Dublin solicitors firm Kelly and Griffin, will be elected today, replacing Ms Geraldine Clarke who served as president for the past year.
"The outrage expressed by many commentators after the collapse of the Keane case is perhaps understandable, but it is certainly not very helpful," he said. "It would be a mistake to rush a raft of new legislation through the Oireachtas in some sort of knee-jerk reaction to this week's events.
"The rules of evidence have served this country well down the years. If, as some have suggested, the law should be changed to allow witness statements to be admitted in evidence without the right to cross-examine those witnesses, we could be going down a very dangerous road." Proposals to change the law must be thought through in a calm and reasoned atmosphere, he added.