It will be practically impossible for criminal cases to proceed if the strikes planned by gardaí go ahead, lawyers have warned.
Civil cases, particularly at the Four Courts, where a private security company operates, are likely to proceed, though gardaí do provide a level of security in many other civil courts. There may be issues with family courts, where a Garda presence, particularly at district level, is often required as a peacekeeping influence.
Two Garda unions have voted to take industrial action and 10,500 rank-and-file gardaí and an estimated 2,000 sergeants and inspectors will refuse to work for 24 hours from 7am on the four Fridays beginning on November 4th.
Court role
Gardaí play an integral part in criminal court cases. Their roles include giving evidence as witnesses, liaising with other witnesses and ensuring they attend court, and liaising with victims and their families. Exhibits officers also control all of the physical evidence in cases.
At District Court level, gardaí bring prosecutions in minor cases and sergeants or inspectors act as court presenters, bringing forward cases in court instead of requiring a large number of individual gardaí to attend.
Senior counsel Vincent Heneghan said he expected the overall effect of the strike, if it goes ahead, will be that the courts will lose four days out of 20 in November.
“That is hugely significant,” he said. “There will also be cases adjourned and new cases coming into the system could be substantially delayed. The strike could create a clogging effect at the District Court.”
Another senior counsel said gardaí giving evidence in trials are summonsed to appear in court, like any other witness, and so would be required to appear, even on strike days. But given that other elements of Garda work would not be in place, it remains to be seen whether this will be an issue.
A solicitor who specialises in criminal cases said she could not imagine how cases could proceed without gardaí. She said if it was just the rank-and- file gardaí on strike, in theory, at District Court level, sergeants, acting as court presenters, could present the list of cases, provided they were not for hearing.
But given that they, too, are striking, and there are already cases listed for that date, then there will be significant difficulty for those cases if there is nobody there to prosecute them.
“There cannot be any new cases on that [strike] day,” she said.
“If they have anyone in custody from Thursday night, they will have to release them with the file or charge and bail them, but they obviously can’t keep them for court until Saturday.”
She said that for cases already remanded into the various Fridays, if there is nobody there to prosecute them, her application will be to have the matters struck out or dismissed for want of prosecution.
“So that is a problem,” she said.
She also said the adjournment of whole lists of cases is usually only done at the behest of the Courts Service, rather than the gardaí.
A spokesman for the Courts Service said it is in discussions with the judiciary and An Garda Síochána in relation to the logistics around any strike days. Asked about the possibility of cases being postponed, he said it was a matter for the judiciary.
