Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2020-09-10
============================================================

James Browne (FF), Wexford

I thank the Senators for their contributions. We all hope that this time next year we will not be not in a similar situation as we are now with Covid. It might be a forlorn hope that we would not be in this situation by November. Any extension beyond November would have to be accompanied by a date in respect of any further extension. I would expect that any such date would be conservative, and rightly so. I have no difficulty providing further opportunity to discuss and debate any extension, especially due to the circumstances in which the Bill had to move so quickly through both Houses. I assume it would be a matter for the Business Committee. I understand the reasons behind the amendment, which is well thought out and well-intentioned, but I am opposing it because we do not know where we will be this time next year and because it would require both Houses to pass any extension. There are safeguards.

---

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/seanad/2020-09-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:32+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-09-10