Minister in bail row warned 'prison system crumbling around him'

THE GOVERNMENT cannot go much further in restricting bail conditions or it would contravene personal freedom provisions of the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern told the Dáil.

Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said it was a scandal “the chief suspects in 15 murders committed in the past 20 months were out on bail”.

Mr Ahern told him: “We are trying to tighten up a number of issues, bring in new conditions and lower the bar in relation to seriousness of offences where there would be a more strict criteria on the granting of bail.”

During justice questions, the Minister said figures showed in 2009 there were “27,228 offences recorded where the suspected offender was on bail”, a drop of 8 per cent on the previous year. Up to March 31st this year, there were 5,398 crimes.

Mr Flanagan accused the Minister of being unable to deal with the issue because of overcrowding in prison, but Mr Ahern said there had been an 8 per cent reduction in bail crimes.

“One offender could have committed 10 offences,” he said. “The judiciary is independent in the way in which it operates and under the Constitution, everyone is entitled to his or her freedom, subject to conditions, until proven guilty.”

He also said an average of 836 prisoners were granted temporary release last month – about 36 a day and 0.86 per cent of the average number in custody.

Mr Flanagan criticised the temporary release policy and highlighted a case in Limerick where a man sentenced to 15 months was released after just two days.

“The Minister is the last person to see the prison system crumbling all around him,” Mr Flanagan said.

“I do not deny there are problems in some of our prisons,” Mr Ahern responded. They were endeavouring to deal with them, , but he would not take criticism from the Fine Gael TD who accused him of “massaging the figures”.

Mr Flanagan also claimed the level of temporary released was 16 per cent.

Mr Ahern rejected the claim, accused Mr Flanagan of “speaking with forked tongue” and said “temporary release is used in certain circumstances to allow people to reintegrate into society”.