Repeat offenders may be refused bail under new legislation

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald has confirmed she intends to publish legislation in the autumn which will allow for the refusal of bail for repeat offenders.

Ms Fitzgerald said in the Dáil that “the legislation is at an advanced stage and I would hope to be in a position to publish it when the Dáil returns” after the summer recess.

She was responding to Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan, who asked if there was a decision to prioritise such legislation given the amount of repeat offending while on bail "by a fairly well-organised and large group of people involved in crime".

Mr Durkan also referred to comments by Independent TD Noel Grealish, who had raised the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday.

Mr Grealish had estimated that “the guts of 100 crimes are being committed daily by people who are out on bail”.

Mr Grealish highlighted recent statistics which showed that in the past 10 years, more than 250,000 crimes had been committed by people who were out on bail.

“The people in question include murderers, rapists, robbers and burglars, who have wreaked havoc and brought terror to our society.”

He said that between 2006 and 2015, people out on bail were responsible for 89 murders, 237 serious sexual offences, 50,000 thefts, 5,000 public order offences and 18,000 burglaries.

He said that, according to CSO figures, “last year alone almost 26,000 crimes were committed by people out on bail, a disturbing increases of 11 per cent on the figure for the previous year”.

Mr Grealish said that was equivalent to 500 crimes a week being carried out by people who had already been charged with a criminal offence.

Promised legislation

Mr Grealish said the promise of bail legislation had been on government programmes since Enda Kenny was appointed Taoiseach in 2011, but five years later such a Bill had not been enacted.

Mr Kenny said the Government believed that serious and serial offenders should be imprisoned.

He said that was why the Tánaiste had asked the Attorney General to work on the bail legislation over the summer.

"That will allow for refusal of bail in respect of repeat offenders, strengthen Garda powers to deal with breaches of bail and allow for the use of electronic tagging for those on bail where requested by gardaí or the Director of Public Prosecutions. "