Paul Carney Backlog proposal
At present these offences can be tried only by the High Court, sitting as the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
The proposal by Mr Justice Paul Carney is aimed at reducing a growing backlog of murder and rape cases waiting to come to trial.
It is now taking over 18 months for a rape or murder offence to come to trial in the Central Criminal Court.
Despite plans to have 11 judges hearing cases during the traditional vacation month of September, the backlog continues to grow.
The Circuit Court already deals with all serious crime except murder and rape and new legislation would be necessary to enable them to expand their jurisdiction.
However, Judge Carney's proposal is an interim one, designed to fill the vacuum until action is taken on proposals due from a commission looking at criminal jurisdiction.
The Central Criminal Court will sit in Limerick in July and Judge Carney said that he believed that if this initiative was not taken, there would be no gardai on the streets of Limerick for the forseeable future because they would be occupied giving evidence in Dublin.
Judge Carney also told an audience at the Burren Law School in Co Clare that there would be very few contested murder trials if the crime of unlawful homicide was introduced, giving a judge a discretion as to the sentence to be imposed.
