Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-14
============================================================

Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I am very pleased to be back in the Seanad. I was here yesterday discussing the Omagh Bill.
I will be frank with Senators. I was working this morning on the legislation that is going through the House today and because of the pressure of work, I was not concentrating on what amendments were ruled out of order or not. Obviously, if there was communication between the Department of justice and the Cathaoirleach's office, although I was not aware of it, I am responsible for it. There are five amendments that have been ruled out of order. I have no difficulty if all of them are now ruled in order and heard. I am happy to proceed with them. I am instructed, however, that my officials did indicate that they thought amendment No. 1 would involve a charge. Aside from that, however, certainly in respect of amendment No. 26, which is the specific amendment dealing with recording ethnicity, my officials have instructed me that there was not any direction or issue in respect of that. Nonetheless, I will accept whatever responsibility I have in respect of it. If it is possible to put them in order, I would ask that the Leas-Chathaoirleach do so.

---

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/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14