Vol. 437 No. 2
68 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she will introduce legislation, along the lines proposed in Britain, to allow the gardaí to take DNA samples without consent in the cases of all suspected offences to which the samples might be relevant.
69 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she will make the gathering of information for terrorist purposes an offence, as is proposed in Britain.
72 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she will introduce a new offence of witness intimidation, wherein it will be for the defendant to show that certain types of action were not intended to intimidate.
74 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice the proposals, if any, she has to allow the drawing of inferences by courts from the fact that a suspect has refused to answer police questions, or has declined to appear in the witness box.
75 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she will grant powers by law to judges to admit written documents as evidence without supporting evidence in order to reduce the cost and length of trials, particularly with regard to professional expert evidence.
76 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she will grant powers to judges to penalise time wasting tactics by counsel by means of orders in respect of reduction of fees.
77 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she will introduce time limits on opening and closing speeches in criminal trials.
78 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice if she will require the defence in criminal cases to disclose the basis for their defence in advance to the prosecution in the same way as the defence is now supplied with the prosecution case.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 68, 69, 72 and 74 to 78 together. As I have already indicated in this House, I could not undertake to indicate, by way of reply to Parliamentary Questions, what specific legislative proposals I might have in a particular area. Any proposals I may have in relation to the subject matter of these questions will be announced in the ordinary way in due course.
