At the pre-legislative scrutiny stage of the Policing, Security, and Community Safety Bill 2021, which purports to improve Garda oversight, the ICCL outlined some concerns and recommendations to further enhance the Bill.
One of their recommendations was that Ireland ratify the OPCAT and “create an effective and independent National Preventive Mechanism to inspect all places of detention, including prisons, Garda stations, direct provision centres, and psychiatric hospitals.” This would, among other things, allow for independent and unannounced inspections of Garda stations, something the Bill was not clearly proposing.
Read ICCL’s August Submission on the Bill here.