Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17 ============================================================ Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland Briefly, by way of reply, the problem is with the Minister saying that in his view, it is implicit that that is the case. That is not the way in which we should be legislating. Somebody on the street who is confronted by a garda, or somebody who is somewhere else where a garda is lawfully present, and the garda claims he suspects him of having committed any offence, at any time in the past, is not going to be able to search the Dáil record. He will not be able to say the Minister seemed to think that this was confined to public places and, therefore, it is his right not to have these particulars demanded of him by a member of An Garda Síochána and his right to refrain from giving his name, address and date of birth on pain of committing a criminal offence means that he can safely tell the garda to get lost. That is not the way we do business. If we want to make it applicable to public places, we should say so. Print and ink are not so expensive that we cannot actually say what we mean and that we leave things implicit in circumstances such as this. On another point, if the Minister considers section 9, he will see that it mentions the power to search somebody for a "relevant article", which is defined in section 7 as anything stolen or obtained unlawfully, explosive materials, controlled drugs, firearms and ammunition, any article the possession of which is in contravention of the Firearms Act, syringes where the person concerned might use them to cause injury to another person, computer programmes and computer passwords and encryption keys. Those are the things which the power of search relates to. Why, therefore, should not the definition of "offence" be similarly linked? If someone cannot be searched except on the suspicion of one of the "relevant article" offences in section 7, why can people be stopped and asked for their name, address and date of birth for any offence? It is not just simply the location; it is also the enormous breadth of the suggestion that if a member of An Garda Síochána believes that somebody has committed an offence as a historical fact, they can ask that person, when they see them in the street, for their name, address and date of birth, without limit. The point about it being in a public place or that being implicit in it is not the only problem with section 8. It far too broadly and, I suggest, excessively widely drafted at the moment. It needs to be tightened up. It really is not correct. I am not going to call a vote on this because the Minister has said he will look at it again. However, it is not good enough for the people drafting the legislation to come up with a section of that kind and say that this or that is implicit in it. That power is given to a member of An Garda Síochána. Persons against whom that power to identify themselves with their name, address and date of birth is deployed are not in a position to say, "Well, this may be the statute law but this garda is asking me now, in the street or in some other public place where he is lawfully present, for this information and telling me that if I do not give it to him, I will be committing an offence and because I do not know whether the Minister's view of what is implied or explicit is correct, I cannot risk being arrested for an offence." When we are drafting legislation and considering the work of the draftsman in circumstances such as this, our job is to get it right and not to say, "Seanad Éireann saw problems with this and the Minister said that if there was a problem, he would address it in a Dáil amendment, rather than dealing with it in this House." I refer to the widening functions of An Garda Síochána and the new security section, which has been established as Ireland's secret service, effectively. We have to be careful about the powers we give An Garda Síochána. I am in favour of the Garda having effective powers but not overweening powers. It was in that spirit that this amendment was offered to delete the section, because it is bad law. I put it to the Minister, if he wants to, either in this House on Report Stage, which, unfortunately, is now being guillotined, or in Dáil Éireann, to come up with a proper section 8. Undoubtedly, some legislative measure incorporating some of the elements of section 8 is a sensible arrangement but this is not the way to do business. --- 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/2026-06-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:04+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-17