Independent Issuing of Search Warrants: Damache v DPP
| DOI | 10.1350/ijep.2013.17.1.420 |
| Published date | 01 January 2013 |
| Date | 01 January 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Case Note |
CASE NOTE
INDEPENDENT ISSUING OF SEARCH WARRANTS:DAMACHEvDPP
CASE NOTE
Independent issuing of search
warrants: Damache vDPP
By Yvonne Marie Daly*
Lecturer in Law, School of Law and Government, Dublin City
University
Keywords Search warrant; Policing; Independence; Inviolability of the dwelling
hile, thankfully, the days of serious violence and unrest in Northern
Ireland have come to an end as a result of the peace process, the legacy of
draconian laws enacted during the so-called ‘Troubles’ remains in the
Republic of Ireland. One such law, allowing for senior members of the police force
to issue search warrants in certain circumstances, was successfully challenged as
being unconstitutional in the Irish Supreme Court in February 2012, 36 years after
its 1976 enactment.
The relevant provision, which allowed for search warrants to be issued by senior
members of the Garda Síochána (the Irish police force) rather than a peace
commissioner or the District Court, was s. 29(1) of the Offences Against the State
Act 1939, as amended by s. 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1976. It read:
Where a member of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of super-
intendent is satisfied that there is reasonable ground for believing
that evidence of or relating to the commission or intended
commission of an offence under this Act or the Criminal Law Act,
1976, or an offence which is for the time being a scheduled offence for
the purposes of Part V of this Act, or evidence relating to the
commission or intended commission of treason, is to be found in any
doi:10.1350/ijep.2013.17.1.420
114 (2013) 17 E&P 114–122 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVIDENCE & PROOF
W
* PhD, Law, Trinity College, Dublin; email: yvonne.daly@dcu.ie.
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