Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-18 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South Senators will be aware that miscellaneous provisions Bills provide a great opportunity for the Executive but, more importantly, for the Legislature to pass legislation in a variety of different areas promptly and effectively. That is what I am doing in this legislation. The Bill is divided into 75 sections across 16 Parts and one Schedule. Part 1 contains standard provisions. Part 2 amends the Firearms Act 1925 and the Prisons Act 2007 to provide a basis for the possession, carriage and use of incapacitant sprays by prison officers in the course of their duties. I believe that is necessary for prison officers. Part 2 further amends the Firearms Act to enable the gardaí to seize and detain a lawfully held firearm or ammunition for up to 14 days where the member reasonably suspects a danger to public safety, security or the peace. I also believe that is a very necessary measure in light of the threat that can arise to the public from those who lawfully hold firearms. Part 3 amends the Courts of Justice Act 1924, the Courts Service Act 1998 and the Judicial Council Act 2019 to empower the overworked Chief Justice to delegate certain non-judicial functions to other members of the Judiciary. Part 4 amends the Defence Act 1954. These were amendments tabled on Committee Stage by my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee. They are amendments to strengthen the powers of the Defence Forces in safeguarding the security of the State in certain circumstances arising in the territorial sea or internal waters of the State or where there is a risk to the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the State. It also makes express affirmatory provision in primary law for the deployment of members of the Defence Forces in aid of the civil power. That is when An Garda Síochána requests the assistance of the Defence Forces, which happens frequently throughout the year. Finally, there are provisions relating to the protection of military installations by the Defence Forces. Part 5 amends the Extradition Act 1965 to empower Garda members to provisionally arrest, without a warrant, persons named in Schengen information system, SIS, alerts from Switzerland and Liechtenstein. This amendment is necessary if the SIS is to operate as intended in such cases. Part 6 amends the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act 1983 to oblige the courts to consider a community service order in lieu of a prison sentence of up to 24 months. At present, that is only 12 months. It will increase from 240 to 480 the maximum community service hours that a judge may order. Those provisions will assist in ensuring that people who may not need go to prison do not go to prison and that they do community service instead. Part 7 relates to criminal evidence. Section 16 amends section 19A of the Criminal Evidence Act 1992 to restrict the disclosure of counselling records and other personal records in sexual offence trials. Senators will be aware that in 2017 legislation was enacted by both Houses of the Oireachtas to try to restrict such disclosure. Unfortunately, that legislation did not fulfil its intended purpose. My amendments delete the waiver provision contained in section 19A, which has all too often meant that victims have failed to benefit from the protections which the legislation provides. From now on, every time that such counselling notes or personal records are sought by the defence, a judge will carefully scrutinise the material and make an impartial and objective decision on whether disclosure is warranted. My amendments also provide for a presumption of non-disclosure, ensuring that the default position is that these records are not to be disclosed. The exception to this is where the court is satisfied, after examining the record, that it is likely to be relevant to an issue at trial and there would be a real risk of an unfair trial in the absence of such disclosure, or it is otherwise in the interests of justice to so order. As I have been repeatedly reminded by the Attorney General, I cannot introduce an outright ban on counselling notes, as that would be unconstitutional. I cannot introduce an outright ban on any personal records. The scheme put in place here will ensure that a judge will carefully examine any records and they will only be disclosed if necessary for the purpose of ensuring there is not an unfair trial and also to ensure that it is in the interests of justice. The amended legislation sets out a two-stage process, inserting a filtering stage in respect of disclosure applications. This mechanism will eliminate "fishing expeditions" by requiring that the likely relevance of a record be shown before any disclosure is even contemplated. The legislation expands the protections of section 19A to include medical records, child protection records and social work records. There has been extensive consultation with stakeholders. In terms of that consultation, I believe this is an appropriate course to adopt. I recently had the opportunity of having a successful and illuminating meeting, organised by Deputy Shane Moynihan, with a group called Beyond Surviving. It is a survivor-led charity. It was a very informative discussion, and I became aware that there are clearly different views in the survivor community on the disclosure of counselling notes. I think it is important that we all reflect on and listen to other perspectives. Irrespective of the legal mechanism, we need to have supports in place for people who have gone through sexual assaults or sex trials and have recognised that the trauma of doing that is very significant. Section 17 amends the Criminal Justice Act 1993 to provide that where a person is convicted of any indictable offence, character evidence for sentencing purposes must be given on oath or by affidavit. Section 18 amends the Criminal Justice Act 1999 to provide that Garda staff, in addition to Garda members, as is already the case, may prepare and sign certificates of evidence relating to custody of exhibits. Part 8 amends various enactments to reassign from the Department of foreign affairs to my Department the responsibility for certifying Irish citizenship where it is relevant to the prosecution of offences. Part 9 amends the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. Part 10 amends the Criminal Justice Act 2006 to provide that where a person entering into a suspended sentence bond is in prison custody, the governor may take the recognisance. Part 11 amends the International Criminal Court Act 2006 to give effect to the State’s intended ratification of the amendments to Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, ICC, and to explicitly provide that the State can co-operate with the ICC with respect to requests. Part 12 amends the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2014 to allow Forensic Science Ireland, FSI, to generate profiles derived from the analysis of coding DNA for identification purposes in cases relating to missing and unknown persons. Part 13 amends the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 to criminalise the exploitative behaviour commonly referred to as "sex for rent" by creating new offences of offering or advertising accommodation in exchange for sexual activity. I commend Senator Harmon on previously putting forward legislation in this House that I said I would adopt, and this is my adoption of it. Part 14 provides a permanent regulatory basis under which licensed premises may provide outdoor seating on public land. Part 15 provides for an application-based scheme to enable the disregard of certain historical convictions, cautions and probation orders relating to consensual sexual activity between men. The scheme will create a basis by which an eligible conviction can effectively be nullified so that its recipient is treated in law as if it never happened. Part 16 contains miscellaneous amendments. Section 65 amends the Criminal Procedure Act 1967 to provide that where a person entering into a bail bond is in Garda custody, the Garda can take the recognisance. Section 66 amends the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 consequential on the Bill’s amendment of section 19A of the Criminal Evidence Act 1992 about personal records. Section 67 amends the Schedule to the Bail Act 1997 to add several new offences to the Schedule. Section 68 amends the Children Act 2001 to lower from superintendent to inspector the minimum Garda rank that may apply to court for an antisocial behaviour order. Section 69 amends the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 to enable the courts to use the personal public service number, PPSN, to verify the identity of persons submitting documents. Section 70 amends the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 to transfer functions under the Act from me as Minister to the Minister for housing. Section 71 amends the Prisons Act 2015 to provide that I, as Minister, may direct that a person be taken from prison to effect a deportation or removal order where two years or less of their sentence remains. Sections 72 to 75 contain various technical amendments to a variety of legislation. I conclude by saying I will bring forward a number of amendments on Committee Stage, namely, provisions to enable the expanded use of electronic technology in criminal proceedings, provisions for certificate evidence of Garda presumptive drug testing in certain proceedings, and a new Garda power under the Public Order Act 1994 to require the removal of face coverings in certain prescribed circumstances. I also intend to bring forward two important security-related amendments. One is to extend the State's passenger name record, PNR, system. The second is to amend the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1926. It is important to have these security-related amendments in place. This is a diverse Bill, and there is a lot of material in it. In the Dáil, there was general support for a lot of its Parts, but there was criticism too that I was putting too much into it. I will not apologise for that. I know from my experience of politics that the ministerial life comes and goes very quickly. You are better off trying to get things done as promptly as possible. If many of these proposals were not pushed forward in a miscellaneous provisions Bill, we would still be talking about them in years to come. --- 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/2026-06-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-18