A YES vote in tomorrow's bail referendum could accelerate the "revolving door" justice system by leading to the release of convicted prisoners to make way for those on remand, according to the president of the Law Society, Mr Frank Daly. "We hear statistics about crimes committed by people on bail but we never hear figures for the number of crimes committed by people on early release from prison," Mr Daly said.
Politicians had been "misleadingly presenting the [bail] issue as a vote against crime rather than a complex issue affecting the rights of every citizen". A balanced debate on the bail proposal had not taken place and the Government had not answered fundamental questions about the referendum posed by the Law Society.
These included precisely which crimes would be covered by the term "serious offences" in the proposed amendment; and whether the burden of proof in applications to refuse bail on the grounds proposed in the referendum will be "beyond reasonable doubt" as in criminal cases or the civil test of "on the balance of probabilities".