A BILL to streamline court procedures and reduce the amount of time spent by gardai on court duties was approved by the Government yesterday. It will be introduced in the Dail when it reassembles for a one day special debate on crime next Thursday.
The Cabinet also discussed the Fianna Fail Bill to freeze and seize the illegal assets of drug barons and agreed that "heavy amendments" would have to be made to it, on constitutional grounds, in the coming week.
Commenting on the new Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, said that gardai must spend a disproportionate amount of time in court waiting for their cases to be called so as to give evidence.
This Bill provided for a new system of written Garda evidence of arrest, charge and caution to be provided in court by way of certificate.
This should cut down on Garda time spent in court and allow the gardai to spend more time productively in the prevention and detection of crime.
Another major provision of the Bill, according to the Minister, gives the District Court power, for the first time, to issue warrants to gardai to search premises and seize evidence relating to the commission of serious offences, such as murder and rape.
"It is extraordinary, in my view, that the Garda have not had the power to search premises for weapons, other than firearms, which may have been used to commit murder or inflict serious bodily injury," Mrs Owen stated.
The Bill is also designed to reduce the amount of Garda time taken up in escorting remand prisoners because the court where the accused person first appeared would now be able to remand the accused person in custody to a court nearer the prison where he or she is held.
It will allow gardai to schedule their court attendances with much greater flexibility where station bail has been granted by the Garda. Station bail can be granted by the Garda where the offence in question is not a serious one.
The Bill will extend the existing statutory limit for remanding an accused person in custody from eight days to a maximum of 15 days on a second or subsequent appearance in court.
The will mean less frequent remand hearings and, as a result, less frequent attendances by the prosecuting gardai.
A provision that the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions will be required before certain indictable offences can be dealt with summarily by the courts is contained in the Bill.
It also provides that, when a person has been convicted of an offence, the DPP's consent will in future be required for other offences to be taken into consideration when that person is being sentenced.
The Government also approved the signature by Ireland of a proposed protocol to the EU Convention on the establishment of a European Police Office (Europol). The protocol will enable preliminary rulings to be sought from the European Court of Justice on the interpretation of the Europol Convention.
