Two-year backlog in Special Criminal Court cases

The Special Criminal Court this week fixed a trial date for April 2017, exactly two years from now, and the first available date for a trial in the non-jury court.

The court currently has 32 people before it and has fixed 19 trials that will take up the rest of this year, all of next year and the first four months of 2017.

These include the trial scheduled for next October of prominent republican Thomas “Slab” Murphy on tax offences dating back to 1996. Murphy has consistently denied he was the chief of staff of the Provisional IRA for many years.

Another trial scheduled for October 2016 is that of Donal Billings, a Co Longford man charged with possession of an improvised explosive device on the eve of the first visit to the Republic by Queen Elizabeth in May 2011. His trial is scheduled to start over 5½ years after the alleged offences.

Both Murphy and Billings have been on bail for several years awaiting trial and the Supreme Court criticised the delay in Murphy’s case, while pointing out that much of it was caused by his repeated challenges to his trial going ahead.

There have been several lengthy high-profile trials in recent years which have lasted longer than expected and which have caused knock-on delays.