UNDER present policy, changes in bail law will mean increases in the number of remand prisoners and those leaving jail to make room for them, having served only a fraction of their sentences, the Progressive Democrats have warned.
Launching her party's campaign for a "Yes" vote in the bail referendum, Ms Mary Harney said yesterday at least 1,500 prison spaces were urgently needed.
Many Irish people were cynical about a Government which intended to change the hail regime without making any corresponding arrangements to deal with a major increase in the number of remand prisoners. The Progressive Democrats slay remand prisoners should he kept apart from convicted inmates.
Her party adyocated the construction of prisons by the private sector and, while management of the institutions should he left to the State, certain services within the prisons, such as catering and medical facilities, could also he done by private firms.
Ms Harney said Ireland was the only country in the western world which accorded bail to people - "even where there is evidence to suggest that they will commit a serious offence if given their liberty". No country with a civil law system permitted people hail in such circumstances, she added.
Asked if she was concerned at strong criticism from the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace of the proposals to change the bail laws, Ms Harney said she did not believe that in a civilised society anybody liable to commit a crime again should be given their liberty.
The courts had a "remarkable record" in protecting people's rights and she hoped the new courts services agency, proposed by the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, earlier this week would "expedite trials so that people who have not been convicted will not be in jail for long".
The PD spokeswoman on justice, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said that where hail was refused, the court could review the situation after four months. The onus was on the State to "get its act together" to provide a speedy trial if a person was remanded in custody.
According to Ms Harney, it was "typical of Labour to have it both ways" after a group of Labour Party barristers and solicitors described the proposed amendment to the bail laws as "dangerous in its consequences if passed. Two Labour TDs were "vigorously" involved in this, she added.
However, a Labour Party spokesman last night accused the Progressive Democrats of being mischievous, adding that neither its Westmeath TD, Mr Willie Penrose, a barrister, nor Mr Derek McDowell, a solicitor, of Dublin North Central, was involved in the Labour Party Lawyers Group.
The former Progressive Democrats leader, Mr Des O'Malley, proposed that "civil prisoners" constituting between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of inmates, should he removed from jail to make way for more serious offenders. Irish jails were full of people who had not paid fines and "satisfactory alternatives" should be found.
Ms Harney said it outraged public opinion that a person found committing a serious offence was guaranteed hail unless the State could show that he intended to abscond or intended to interfere with the prosecution against him. About 250 crimes per week were committed by people on bail - "an intolerable state of affairs which must be put to rights".