Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023: From the Seanad Dail Éireann — 2024-07-10 ============================================================ Catherine Connolly (CC), Galway West Seanad amendments Nos. 1 to 11, inclusive, are related and will be discussed together. Catherine Connolly (CC), Galway West Does any Member wish to comment on the Seanad amendments? Brendan Howlin (LAB), Wexford The Minister of State might go through the exact import of each Seanad amendment. James Browne (FF), Wexford Amendments Nos. 1 to 11, inclusive, are technical amendments which are to replace the word "vulnerable" with "relevant". The reason for that is that the word "vulnerable" has a more particular meaning in a number of other places in legislation. This is to avoid confusion in relation to it. A vulnerable person is currently defined in the Bill as a person with capacity issues. However, a position of vulnerability is also used in relation to trafficked persons, which is construed more broadly. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions raised concerns that these terms could be conflated, which risked narrowing the interpretation of position of vulnerability. To address the issue, the amendments define a person with capacity issues as a relevant person and provide for the associated changes in terminology in relation to that. The purpose of the change is to avoid confusion. Catherine Connolly (CC), Galway West Agreement to the Seanad amendments is reported to the House. A message will be sent to the Seanad acquainting it accordingly. Brendan Howlin (LAB), Wexford A great way to do business. Catherine Connolly (CC), Galway West The period of reflection in the morning helps. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-07-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:11+00:00 Sitting date: 2024-07-10