McEntee ‘certainly supporting’ Special Criminal Court

The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said she and her Fine Gael party will “certainly” be supporting the renewal of the Special Criminal Court.

Confirming her party will be voting to renew the non-jury court, Ms McEntee told RTE radio it has “stood the test of time”.

“I believe the Special Criminal Court has served us well. The Garda Commissioner has clearly said that there is a need for it.

“And I would ask any person in this day and age: ‘Would you or would a member of your family like to sit on a jury trial where perhaps a member of the IRA or a member of an organised crime gang is being tried?’ And the simple answer is: ‘No.’

“We need to make sure the protections are in place.

“And I and my party will certainly be supporting it as we always have.

Ms McEntee was responding to a question on whether she would back any of the recommendations from members of the independent review group to examine the Offences Against the State Acts.

The review group did not reach consensus on all matters and published a minority report from two members and a majority report from the remaining four.

While the majority’s recommendation was to replace the current Special Criminal Court with a new special court with additional safeguards and transparency, the minority warned that establishing a permanent non-jury court by ordinary legislation is “constitutionally inappropriate”.

Ms McEntee said: “I am not accepting or rejecting any of the reports, there’s a huge amount of information in it and it needs to now be assessed.

“It needs to be sent to the gardai, the DPP, the courts and others and I will come back with recommendations in due course.”