The Bail (Amendment) Bill 2016 was published on 08 December 2016. The purpose of the Bill is to strengthen the law on Bail.
The main provisions of the Bill are:
- in refusing bail, a court may also take into account persistent serious offending by the accused and the likelihood of any danger to a person or the community if the accused was granted bail
- the strengthening of Garda powers to deal with breaches of bail;
- the range of conditions that may be attached to bail are expanded to include:
- prohibiting contact by the accused with the victim or a member of the victim’s family
- prohibiting the accused from driving where the offence charged is a serious road traffic offence
- the imposition of a night-time curfew
- enabling electronic monitoring to be made a condition of bail on the application of the prosecution.
- when considering a bail application, courts may hear evidence from the victim regarding the possibility of interference by the accused with the victim or a family member
- courts to give reasons for granting or refusing bail and for imposing any conditions of bail.