EU backs first training programme on advising suspects in Garda custody

Researchers at Dublin City University (DCU) have collaborated with the Law Society of Ireland to develop and deliver the programme.

It’s part of the European Commission-funded SUPRALAT project, partnering DCU with the University of Maastricht, the University of Antwerp, PLOT (Belgium), and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

Until two years ago, criminal defence solicitors in Ireland were entitled to consult with suspects detained in Garda custody, but they were not entitled to be present during Garda interviews.

This policy was changed in 2014, but solicitors’ training did not provide for their new, expanded role. Similar developments across Europe, following recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and legislative developments under the EU procedural rights roadmap, have exposed a skills deficit in other jurisdictions too.

Dr Vicky Conway and Dr Yvonne Daly of the Socio-Legal Research Centre in DCU’s School of Law and Government, along with Dr Yvonne Crotty of the International Centre for Innovation and Workplace Learning at DCU Institute of Education, have been working with their partner institutions in the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary to develop a skills-based training programme which will enable solicitors to best defend their clients rights in the interview.

The training combines legal knowledge, legal psychology and cutting edge pedagogy and will be delivered in a blended learning format.

Following input from the Law Society’s professional training unit and from a national project committee comprising academic, practitioners and NGO activists, the Law Society has accredited the SUPRALAT programme as a “Masterclass”. It marks the first time that the Law Society has collaborated with a university in this way.

Trainers will be trained this month, with practitioners across Ireland being trained in March and April. More information on the SUPRALAT project can be found on its website.