Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
The Sixteenth Amendment of Bunreacht na hÉireann, the constitution of the Republic of Ireland, provided that a court could refuse bail to a suspect where it feared that while at liberty they would commit a criminal offence. It was effected by the Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1996, which was approved by referendum on 28th November, 1996 and signed into law on the 12th December of the same year.
In 1965 the Supreme Court had ruled in the O'Callaghan case that the provisions of Article 40.4, which guarantees personal liberty and the principle of habeas corpus, meant that an individual charged with a crime could only be refused bail if they were likely to flee or to interfere with witnesses or evidence. The Sixteenth Amendment made it possible for a court to take into account whether or not a person had committed serious crimes while on bail in the past. The amendment was introduced by the Fine Gael-Labour government of John Bruton, but was also supported by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats (the two major opposition parties). The referendum was approved, on a low turnout, by 579,740 (74.8%) in favour to 194,968 (25.2%) against. It should be noted that, while the change shown above is that made to the English language version of the constitution, constitutionally it is the Irish text that takes precedence.
