This amendment was moved by Deputies Cooney and Fitzpatrick on Committee Stage in the Dáil and provides for personal service only in an urgent case of summary jurisdiction. I accepted the amendment with considerable misgivings. There are strong arguments for and against personal service in the type of case envisaged by section 15.
As section 15 will be invoked only in a situation akin to a national emergency such as a threatened outbreak of foot and mouth disease, it will be essential to bring offenders to justice with the maximum possible speed. This end will be hindered if a summons has to be served personally and the defendant chooses to evade service; the delay involved could severely threaten the national interest. A lesser consideration, but nevertheless an important one, is the extra work involved for the Garda in serving a summons on an elusive defendant. If personal service is not effected in time, a fresh summons would have to be sought involving the fixing of a new date for the hearing and this, of course, might have to be repeated depending on the success of the defendant's efforts to evade service.
On the other hand, it was argued that as the minimum time for service is being reduced from seven to two days, the usual arrangements for service do not adequately safeguard the interests of the individual. Rules of Court provide that a summons can be served personally or left at a defendant's home or place of employment with a relative or agent. With a two-day summons the chances are very much greater that a defendant who has a perfectly adequate defence could find that, unknownst to himself, he has been convicted in court. Although he has the remedy of an appeal to the Circuit Court, where there will be a complete re-hearing, he will at the same time have suffered a grave injustice.
The difficulty posed by this section is to strike the correct balance between the public interest and the interest of the individual. I agree that, generally speaking, it is highly undesirable that a defendant should get only two days notice but it has to be accepted that all the principles that would normally form part and parcel of our law and our administration of justice cannot be adhered to rigidly in dealing with offences which, while they are classified as minor under the law, pose a serious threat to the national economy or wellbeing. I have been persuaded that if the section is amended to provide for personal service only, it will resolve as fairly as possible the conflicting interests of the State and of the individual.
