Vol. 533 No. 6
361 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the legislative proposals he has to amend section 2(2) of the Bail Act, 1997 in order that a previous conviction of an accused person will be taken more strongly into consideration when deciding whether to refuse bail in accordance with section 2(1) of the Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9485/01]
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 572 of 20 March 2001, where I pointed out that section 2(2) of the Bail Act, 1997, already provides that in exercising its jurisdiction under section 2(1) of the Act, which enables a court to refuse bail if satisfied that such refusal is reasonably considered necessary to prevent the commission of a serious crime, a court must take into account any previous convictions of the accused person.
The granting of bail in accordance with the provisions of the Act is, as I pointed out to the Deputy, a matter for the courts which are, subject only to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of their judicial functions. While I am keeping the operation of the Act generally under review, I have no proposals to change the provisions of section 2(2).
