Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan has said he wants to restrict presidential pardons to cases involving miscarriages of justice under the Irish State.
In a Department of Justice press release issued today, the Fianna Fáil Minister confirmed that the Government has approved in principle a new approach to pardon applications, which would exclude cases from before Irish independence.
This is being done in part because “the Government now wishes to ensure that the power to pardon is not in some way devalued by overuse.”
O’Callaghan said recent applications have increasingly focused on historical convictions from the pre-1922 period, creating legal and practical difficulties.
“In recent years, the nature of applications for consideration of a pardon have changed to focus on historical cases that pre-date independence from British rule,” O’Callaghan said.
“These cases present several difficulties, not least of which is that the courts that tried these offences were established under the jurisdiction of the previous British administration in Ireland, and not the Irish State itself.”
Under the proposed changes, only convictions handed down after the foundation of the State in 1922 would be eligible for consideration.
O’Callaghan said the aim is to focus the pardon system on cases where the Irish State can take responsibility for a miscarriage of justice.
“The approach I’m proposing to the application for consideration of a pardon will be in line with the current statutory scheme under the Criminal Procedure Act 1993 and will reserve consideration of Presidential pardon applications to a miscarriage of justice since the foundation of the State,” he said.
He also pointed to difficulties in dealing with older cases, including a lack of documentation and the passage of time.
“The granting of a pardon is one of the most significant powers the President can exercise and allows the State to right a manifest wrong that has occurred in the administration of justice,” O’Callaghan said.
“However, Presidential pardons under the Constitution should be granted in those circumstances where a miscarriage of justice has occurred under the auspices of the State.”
The Minister said the policy should reflect the State’s responsibility for its own legal system.
“I am of the strong view that the policy approach with respect to the processing of Presidential pardon applications needs to be anchored to the foundation of the State when an Irish Government came into existence,” O’Callaghan said.
“By doing so it recognises that the Irish State acknowledges that it has responsibility for any miscarriages of justice that have taken place under its authority.”
Presidential pardons are rare in Ireland. Eight have been granted since 1922, with five of those issued since 2015. Several of the more recent pardons related to convictions from before independence.
The Department said the number of applications has risen in recent years, and that the new approach is intended to ensure the system remains focused on clear cases of miscarriage of justice under Irish law.