Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-23 ============================================================ Anne Rabbitte (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach The Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, is very welcome to the Chamber this evening. Fianna Fáil welcomes this debate and supports the Bill. The Bill is part of Ireland's commitment to bring our terrorism law in line with those of other EU member states. Fighting terrorism is a top priority for the EU, and in March 2017, the EU adopted a directive on combating terrorism, namely, Directive (EU) 2017/541. The new rules strengthen the EU's legal framework to prevent terrorist attacks and address the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters. The directive introduced new offences relating to the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon through enhanced information exchange between EU member states. This Bill will amend the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Acts 2005 and 2015. The passing of the Bill will pave the way for Ireland's participation in an enhanced EU counterterrorism network, enabling a co-ordinated and dynamic response to domestic and cross-border terrorist threats. Enactment of this Bill is a commitment in the programme for Government and supports the broader programme commitment to strengthen national security. The Bill is an important step in strengthening Ireland's counterterrorism framework and ensuring that our laws remain fit for purpose in the face of evolving security threats. While most of the directive has been implemented in Irish law, the Bill addresses the remaining gaps and brings Ireland fully in line with the current EU counterterrorism framework. The Bill introduces three new offences: receiving training for terrorism; travelling for the purpose of terrorism; and organising or facilitating travel for the purpose of terrorism. It also expands the offence of public provocation to commit a terrorist offence to include the glorification of terrorist activities and updates the law to recognise certain cyberattacks as terrorist offences in appropriate circumstances. These measures will provide law enforcement and the justice system with additional tools to prevent terrorism, disrupt terrorist activity and respond to emerging threats. At the same time, Ireland remains committed to ensuring that all counterterrorism measures are implemented in accordance with the rule of law, human rights obligations and the principles of necessity and proportionality. The Bill has an important European dimension. Its enactment will support Ireland's participation in key EU justice and security co-operation measures, strengthening information sharing, collaboration with our European partners and addressing common security challenges. Overall, this is a targeted and proportionate Bill that updates our legislation, enhances public safety and ensures that Ireland continues to play a full role in international efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism. I look forward to the progression of the Bill. --- 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/2026-06-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-23