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12 1967

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT, 1967

PART III

Remand

Power to remand.

21. —Where an accused person is before the District Court in connection with an offence the Court may, subject to the provisions of this Part, remand the accused from time to time as occasion requires.

Remand in custody or on bail by the District Court.

22. —(1) Where the District Court remands a person or sends him forward for trial or sentence, the Court may—

(a) commit him to prison or other lawful custody, or

(b) release him conditionally on his entering into a recognisance, with or without sureties.

In this Part, references to “custody” are to a committal under paragraph (a) and references to “bail” are to a conditional release under paragraph (b).

(2) The Court may, instead of taking a recognisance from a person in accordance with subsection (1), fix the amount of the recognisance in which he and his sureties, if any, are to be bound with a view to their being subsequently taken in accordance with subsection (3) and in the meantime commit him to custody in accordance with subsection (1) (a).

(3) Where the Court fixes the amount of a recognisance under subsection (2), the recognisance may thereafter be taken by a justice of the Court or by a peace commissioner.

(4) Where a person is brought before the Court after remand under subsection (1) the Court may further remand him.

Form of recognisance.

23. —(1) Where a person is remanded on bail under section 22 the recognisance shall be conditioned for his appearance before the Court at the end of the period of remand and at every place and time to which during the course of the proceedings the hearing may be adjourned.

(2) The fixing at any time of the time for the next appearance shall be deemed to be a remand.

(3) Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) shall deprive the Court of power at any subsequent hearing to remand him afresh.

Period of remand.

24. —(1) The Court shall not remand a person for a period exceeding eight days, except where this section otherwise provides.

(2) Where the Court remands a person on bail, it may remand him for a longer period than eight days if he and the prosecutor consent.

(3) Where the Court remands a person in custody (other than on the occasion of his first appearance before the Court) it may remand him for a period exceeding eight days but not exceeding thirty days if he and the prosecutor consent.

(4) If the Court is satisfied that any person who has been remanded is unable by reason of illness or accident to appear or to be brought before the Court at the expiration of the period of remand, the Court may, in his absence, remand him for such further period, which may exceed eight days, as the Court considers reasonable.

(5) Where there is no sitting of the Court on the day to which a person is remanded, he shall stand remanded to the sitting of the Court next held in the same district court district.

Remand to custody of Garda Síochána.

25. —(1) The Court may, where it remands a person in custody for a period not exceeding four days, commit him to the custody of a member of the Garda Síochána.

(2) Outside the Dublin Metropolitan Police District the Court, before so remanding him, shall satisfy itself that suitable facilities are available for the custody of such person during the period of remand.

Acceptance of deposit in lieu of sureties.

26. —Where a justice of the District Court or peace commissioner decides to admit to bail a person charged with an offence, he may direct that a sum of money equivalent to the amount of bail be accepted in lieu of a surety or sureties.

Sufficiency of bailsmen.

27. —The justice or peace commissioner shall in every case satisfy himself as to the sufficiency of the persons proposed to be accepted as bailsmen.

Provisions as to admission to bail.

28. —(1) A justice of the District Court or a peace commissioner shall admit to bail a person charged before him with an offence, other than an offence to which section 29 applies, if it appears to him to be a case in which bail ought to be allowed.

(2) Refusal of bail at a particular appearance before the District Court shall not prevent a renewal of the application for bail at a subsequent appearance or while the accused is in custody awaiting trial.

(3) Where an application for bail is refused, or where the applicant is dissatisfied with the bail, he may appeal to the High Court.

(4) When a justice or a peace commissioner grants bail to an accused person who is in custody that person shall, on completion of the recognisance, be released if he is in custody for no other cause than the offence in respect of which bail is granted.

Bail in case of treason, murder and certain other offences.

29. —(1) This section applies to each of the following offences—

(a) treason,

(b) an offence under section 2 or 3 of the Treason Act, 1939 ,

(c) an offence under section 6 , 7 or 8 of the Offences Against the State Act, 1939 ,

(d) a grave breach such as is referred to in section 3 (1) (i) of the Geneva Conventions Act, 1962 ,

(e) an offence under section 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 1963 , or an offence under Part II of that Act committed in a manner prejudicial to the safety or preservation of the State,

(f) murder, attempt to murder, conspiracy to murder or piracy, including an accessory before or after the fact.

(2) A person charged with an offence to which this section applies shall not be admitted to bail except by order of the High Court.

(3) If in the course of proceedings, including proceedings on appeal, in relation to the grant of bail to a person charged with an offence under paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (e) of subsection (1), application is made by the prosecutor, on the ground that the publication of any evidence or statement to be given or made during any part of the hearing would be prejudicial to the safety or preservation of the State, that that part of the proceedings should be in camera, the Court shall make an order to that effect, but the decision of the Court shall be announced in public.

Endorsement on warrants as to release on bail.

30. —(1) A justice of the District Court or a peace commissioner on issuing a warrant for the arrest of any person may, if he thinks fit, by endorsement on the warrant, direct that the person named in the warrant be on arrest released on his entering into such a recognisance, with or without sureties, for his appearance as may be specified in the endorsement, and the endorsement shall fix the amounts in which that person and his sureties (if any) are to be bound.

(2) Where such an endorsement is made, the sergeant or other member of the Gárda Síochána in charge of any station to which on arrest the person named in the warrant is brought shall discharge him upon his entering into a recognisance, with or without sureties approved by that member, in accordace with the endorsement.

Release on bail in certain cases by members of Garda Síochána.

[1951, s. 14].

31. —(1) Whenever a person is brought in custody to a Garda Síochána station by a member of the Garda Síochána, the sergeant or other member in charge of the station may, if he considers it prudent to do so and no warrant directing the detention of that person is in force, release him on bail and for that purpose take from him a recognisance, with or without sureties, for his due appearance before the District Court at the appropriate time and place.

(2) The recognisance may be estreated in the like manner as a recognisance entered into before a justice is estreated.

(3) A sum of money equivalent to the amount of bail may be accepted in lieu of a surety or sureties. The money shall be deposited by the member of the Garda Síochána receiving it with the district court clerk for the district court area in which the Garda Síochána station is situate.

(4) This section does not apply to a person arrested under section 251 of the Defence Act, 1954 , on suspicion of being a deserter or an absentee without leave from the Defence Forces.

Proceedings to estreat recognisance.

32. —Where a person has failed to appear before a court in accordance with his recognisance, any proceedings to estreat the recognisance shall be taken in that court.

Arrest of accused about to abscond.

33. —(1) Where a person charged with an offence has been admitted to bail, a justice of the District Court or a peace commissioner may, if he thinks fit, on the application of the surety or any of the sureties of the accused or of a member of the Garda Síochána and upon information being made in writing and on oath by or on behalf of such surety or member that the accused is about to abscond for the purpose of evading justice, issue a warrant for the arrest of the accused.

(2) When arrested he shall be brought before a justice of the District Court.

(3) If the accused is brought before a justice otherwise than at a sitting of the Court for the district in which the order sending him forward for trial was made or, if he is on remand, of the Court before which he was bound by his recognisance to appear, the justice shall remand him to appear before such a sitting as aforesaid, and for this purpose the justice shall have the powers of remand conferred on the Court by this Part.

(4) The Court sitting as aforesaid may commit the accused to prison to await his trial or until he enters into a fresh recognisance or, if he is on remand, further remand him.