Combating Firearms Trafficking and other Firearms-Related Offences: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17
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Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland

I welcome the Minister. In principle, I have no problem with the directive proposed in the European Parliament. We should do everything necessary to avoid trafficking in firearms, including trafficking in 3D-printed firearms. However, I have one question, which I hope the Minister will be able to answer. By opting in to the negotiation process, do we bind ourselves to opt in to the outcome, no matter what it is? That is an issue about which the House should be informed. Are we effectively opting in to something whose exact nature is not known? Can we legally opt out if we do not like the measures proposed? I fully accept that, in this case, that is an unlikely scenario but it could be the case nonetheless.
It should be put on the record that the directive is a very lengthy document. Directives should be circulated to all Members of the House in advance of motions of this kind. Apart from criminalising certain activities, it is proposed to create liabilities and penalties for legal persons, that is, companies. The proposed directive sets out aggravating circumstances, in respect of which penalties are to be agreed. There is a definition of what amounts to mitigating circumstances. There are provisions in relation to special investigative tools. I would like to know what that actually means. There is provision for limitation periods for the prosecution of offences. These are things that do not really apply in Ireland and yet, for some reason, it is thought that these have to be standardised across the European Union.
Then, it states "that Member States establish jurisdiction for offences covered by the proposal and that they inform the Commission if they ... [wish] to extend this jurisdiction in specific cases where the offence is committed outside their territory." All of those issues are significant and they should be examined carefully by this House when we make a decision to opt in or not to opt in, whether it is on a preliminary basis to enable us to participate in negotiation or it is to opt in after the adoption of the measure.
I want to indicate my feeling that we are being presented with this motion days before the limit for opting in to the negotiation process is concerned and Members of this House have not been circulated with the text of the directive. The Minister has very limited time to describe what is involved but he has done so in fairly brief and concise form. When we look at the document, which I have in my hand now, it is very substantial. We have to reform our processes in these Houses. If this is what we are opting in to, it should be known to every Member of both Houses. They should have an opportunity to study it before being asked to simply rubber-stamp an opt-in or opt-out decision. They should be in a position to express views about the desirability of not merely the outline principle of the directive but every single aspect of the proposed directive, so that the wishes of the elected representatives of the Irish people can be fed into the process as to whether Ireland does or does not opt in to these types of measures on an informed, intelligent basis.
I am not opposing the Minister's motion but I am protesting that this is a substantial piece of work. To tell us, with a couple of days to go to either opt in or opt out without actually showing every Member what is involved and without going to the justice committee of the Houses and saying this is what is in issue and giving the Members of these Houses who sit on committees the opportunity to consider what is happening on a European level, is indicative of a very lax approach to the interaction of national parliaments of EU member states and the legislative process of the European Union itself.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-17