Priorities in justice legislation
The Government Legislative Programme for the 2023 autumn session contains within it four justice bills earmarked as priority legislation. The departments of justice and social protection have the joint second most priority bills, behind the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Coroners (Amendment) Bill
The Coroners (Amendment) Bill is designed to ensure that four coroners “can continue to operate in the Dublin District” and that additional temporary coroners can be appointed to other districts as required. The Bill also aims to provide for the salaried coroners in the Dublin District.
While the Government states in its Legislative Programme, published in September 2023, that the heads of the Bill are in preparation, as of October 2023, no further progress has been reported. While this pace is not unusual or notable in a normal scenario, the Government’s own programme points out that the Dublin District will have to revert to just one coroner if the Bill is not enacted by February 2024.
Defamation (Amendment) Bill
The Defamation (Amendment) Bill aims to implement the recommendations of 2022’s Report of the Review of the Defamation Act 2009 and amend the Defamation Act 2009 in the process. Most notable among the recommendations of the report are the abolishment of juries in High Court defamation cases, the granting of jurisdiction to the Circuit Court to grant a Norwich Pharmacal Order, and the insertion of new anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) measures.
Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill was completed on 4 July 2023, with the Joint Committee on Justice publishing its report on 27 September 2023. The report contained within it 18 recommendations. Notably, it called for the removal of the proposal to abolish juries in High Court defamation actions “in order to make findings of fact and to make an indicative finding of an appropriate level of damages, where appropriate”. Further recommendations include the offer of training to judges with regard to SLAPP cases, which are defined as strategic and abusive uses of the legislation by a powerful entity or individual in order to deter public interest discussion, and that care is taken to ensure that anti-SLAPP measures align with the EU’s anti-SLAPP Directive.
Drafting of the Bill is now underway.
Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill
The Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill was introduced by then-acting Minister for Justice Heather Humphreys TD in June 2021, representing an effort by the Government to modernise and update policing in Ireland, with police powers to be consolidated, targeted reforms to be introduced, and new fundamental rights provisions to be included. The Bill is said to “have a strong focus on human rights”, for both the “rights of suspected or accused persons, as well as the human rights of all members of society”.
Measures in the Bill include: the introduction of a single power of arrest, increasing the scope of Garda arrest powers, but making the powers “subject to conditions to ensure the arrest is necessary in particular circumstances”; the placing of the Garda caution on a statutory basis; the introduction of a statutory right for an accused to have a lawyer present at their interview; the introduction of new Garda powers to compel a person to provide electronic device passwords when executing a search warrant; a requirement for written records of stop and search incidents; the drawing up of statutory codes of practice for Gardaí in using the Bill’s powers; and special measures for child suspects and suspects with impaired capacity.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice issued its report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill in June 2022, including 10 recommendations for amendments to the Bill. These recommendations include language clarifications, the inclusion of ethnicity in the recording of stop and searches, that a provision allowing senior Garda members to approve search warrants in urgent circumstances be removed, and that actions including sanctions are introduced in response to illegal searches in order to make Gardaí aware of and complaint with their obligations.
Drafting of the Bill is now underway.
Sale of Alcohol Bill
The heads of the Sale of Alcohol Bill were approved in October 2022, with the drafting of the Bill starting in March 2023. The Bill seeks to codify the law relating to the sale and consumption of alcohol.
The report on the committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny was published in March 2023. The committee heard from representatives of the Licensed Vintners Association, Give Us the Night, the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, Independent Craft Brewers of Ireland, Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland, and officials from the Department of Justice in an effort to gauge views regarding the Bill that will create one single piece of legislation to regulate the sale of alcohol.
The committee’s report returned 27 recommendations, including the amendment of the Bill’s title to better reflect the broader impact of the legislation, the creation of a new type of venue license for dance venues separate from the seven-day publican’s license, and that consideration be given to the introduction of a form of ‘dry license’ for venues that are open during the night-time hours but not serving alcohol, along with hybrid licenses for venues that serve alcohol at certain times but wish to remain open beyond those times.
