Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

Over the last few years, we have heard a huge amount, including in official reports, about the abuse of stop and search among particular communities, not only around ethnicity but also in relation to particular demographics and communities. We grew up being regularly stopped and searched as children. We did not even have to have an adult present. We were stopped and searched while walking to the shop or through the park if there were more than two or three people. If we are not willing to capture that, we are not willing to acknowledge that we have poor policing practices. It does save the State money because if the Garda is going to keep stopping and searching people, that creates a cost on the State even in terms of policing and wasting the time of gardaí on profiling people when they could actually be using policing resources to investigate real crime instead of abusing stop and search.
If there is going to be a moment to reflect on whether ethnicity should be included here or not in terms of it being ruled out of order in the discussion, I would also like to acknowledge that my amendment to repeal section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act has been ruled out of order because it was considered to be irrelevant. That section is mentioned in the Bill we are dealing with today. It provides for a stop-and-search power, the use of which will actually be expanded when the rest of these laws come into force. Section 3 is an integral part of stop and search in this country. The Garda has no bar to have proof of anything to use stop and search under section 3. Now, we also have the ruling-out of an amendment saying it is irrelevant to the Bill - a stop-and-search power irrelevant to the Bill. Who is making these decisions? I have been legislating in this House for ten years and I can tell the Minister now, when I write amendments, I do not write them without taking in the Bill in its entirety and all the other Bills to which this Bill is related. Part 2, on page 9, describes "a controlled drug (within the meaning of section 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977), the possession of which is in contravention of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977". Section 3 is needed for section 2. They do not exist in isolation, yet this House has ruled my amendment out of order and not allowed it even to be discussed. This is one of the main stop-and-search powers that are abused this country. I do not want to wait until we get to that section to bring it up because what I want to acknowledge is that we have a problem here in relation to what is ruled out of order. If we do take a few minutes to discuss the reinsertion of Senator McDowell's amendment, I also need to challenge very hard the fact that it is bad law to stand in this House to say that section 3 is irrelevant to this Bill. It actually makes no sense. If the Department of justice, the police, the Senators in this room or any legislators and drafters do not see the relevance of section 3 in this Bill, this Bill should not come before us at all because they need to understand the Bill in its entirety, and its impact.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14