Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24 ============================================================ Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland A number of things occur to me in this context. The first is that we should not suffer from collective amnesia. It is a long time ago, but not that long ago, that Don Tidey, a supermarket executive, was the subject of a kidnapping. The Provisional IRA, at that stage, looked for £5 million ransom for his return. He was hidden in a number of places but eventually in County Leitrim, in the custody of the Provisional IRA. Extensive searches were authorised by the Government at the time to find and release him and return him to his family. Let us be clear about one thing. In those circumstances, we cannot have meetings of the Dáil and Seanad to work out whether the Army, which was in the end deployed extensively to find and rescue Don Tidey, should or should not be deployed. You cannot do that in an orderly fashion. You could not say that when Tiede Herrema was the subject of a kidnapping in County Laois, you would want to have a meeting of the Dáil and Seanad to decide whether members of An Garda Síochána should be assisted by members of the Army in confronting that situation. It is worthwhile reminding ourselves that Galen Weston, another executive, was the subject of an elaborate attempt to kidnap him, and the late Ben Dunne was the object of similar activity. What happened in the case of Don Tidey was shocking. A member of the Defence Forces, Private Patrick Kelly, was murdered. Recruit Garda Gary Sheehan, for whom there is a medal every year now in Templemore, was murdered. Let us remember that there are occasions when the Defence Forces must be deployed in order to vindicate the rights of citizens. Those events are by no means unique. Those of us who have been around slightly longer than others will remember with crystal clarity when the movement of cash in this State had to be done in the presence of trucks full of soldiers. We saw what happened when that did not happen in Adare, County Limerick. Members of An Garda Síochána were machine-gunned by people intent on stealing money for the Provisional IRA. We cannot have a situation where Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann have to approve resolutions in all circumstances where events such as those arise. Was it wrong to deploy armed members of the Defences Forces and gardaí in the searches across the country to rescue Don Tidey? If someone is of the view that it was wrong for the Defence Forces to assist An Garda Síochána in that regard, that is fine. However, would anyone who does not share that view seriously suggest that if the Government deployed the Defence Forces in such circumstances, it would not be open to any Member of the Oireachtas who thought there was something wrong with what had happened to seek an early meeting of the Houses to determine whether such powers were properly deployed? In the real world, powers of this kind cannot be contingent on debates in Dáil Éireann. In the past, the Defence Forces have acted in aid of the civil power. I did it myself on one occasion. On a number of occasions, I ended up in a ditch on the Concession Road outside Castleblayney with my worthy Gustav submachine gun. I was there to protect gardaí from being murdered by people, whether loyalists or our own republican paramilitaries, who were trying to challenge the authority of the Irish State. This has happened before. The real question is what is the appropriate mechanism. Is there a statutory basis for it? I cannot remember - and I do not remember sitting in that ditch either - whether there was, in fact, a statutory basis for what was done previously. I do not remember whether anybody at the time of the Tidey kidnapping and the murders of Patrick Kelly and Gary Sheehan queried whether it was appropriate for the Army to be involved. I doubt that they did because, at the time, it was generally assumed that the Government of the day could call on An Garda Síochána and the Army to act jointly to confront serious situations where necessary. If the current Attorney General and Minister for justice believe that a statutory basis is needed for this, it is our duty to assist them in that regard rather than telling them that we must make provision in law that, before anything is done, both Houses of the Oireachtas must be convened and their authority sought to conduct a search for Don Tidey or that Private Patrick Kelly should not be allowed help An Garda Síochána, laying down his life, without a resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas. The recent fuel protests probably gave rise to further consideration of these matters. It is not coincidence that this section is being put in place. It is proposed that the Minister for Defence should, following a request from the Minister for justice, have the right to direct the deployment of member of the Defence Forces in aid of the civil power to do what they have unfortunately done very regularly in the past. It is proposed that deployment would be conditional on a request from one Minister to the other that the Army should be so deployed. This puts what happened in the past on a lawful basis. The reference to the Minister is a reference to the Minister for Defence. We now have two Ministers for finance and two Ministers for education. We have a Minister for children and Ministers for a whole load of other things. There was a time when most schoolchildren could tell you the names of the Ministers running different Departments but now you would need to have an expert memory to work out the exact jurisdiction of the various Ministers of the Cabinet. I am not going to speak on something irrelevant but I will strongly make the point that we need a full-time Minister for Defence because what has happened to the Defence Forces over the last 20 years has been nothing short of scandalous. They have been run down to a very low state. We can deal with that later. Let us be clear. Nobody in this community has the right to blockade fuel depots with a view to bringing the country to its knees. It in unlawful and criminal. It is a criminal conspiracy. I will repeat what I have said before in this House; you may not do that. It is not legitimate to do that. It is wrong to do it. It is a breach of the criminal law to do it. There is no right to organise a blockade of fuel depots with a view to bringing the Government to its knees. Nobody has the right to do that, no matter how strongly they feel about taxes on petrol or diesel or whatever. I share many of their views about some of our fossil fuel taxation policies but nobody has the right to bring society to its knees. In those circumstances, if it were necessary to shift trucks and obstacles and it the only group with the equipment to do so was the Army, it would be absurd for those resources not to be available in some shape or form to ensure the lifeblood of the country continued to flow. I reject the idea that anybody has ever suggested that the Army get involved in batoning civilians on protest lines or anything of that kind. I know full well that what is in mind is tow trucks to open up access to vital fuel arteries to keep this country going. If a group of citizens thinks they have the right to say to Government and the community at large that they will bring Government to its knees unlawfully and in breach of the criminal law, that nobody will stop them and that, if gardaí and squad cars cannot stop them, that will be the end of the matter and the Government will surrender, it does not matter how many people support them, that is a huge mistake. At the time, I did not want to add fuel to the flames, if I may use that analogy. It was perfectly proper for the Minister who is with us today to seek the assistance of the Army in deploying trucks to remove other trucks, the purpose of which was to choke off the economic life of the country and bring the economy to its knees. If we do not understand that, we have a really big problem. The idea that both Houses of the Oireachtas would have had to be convened before the Army was sent to rescue Don Tidey is ridiculous. The executive power of the State is lodged in the Government; it is not lodged in these Houses. There are occasions when the executive power of the State requires instant and effective action. These Houses can convene thereafter and say that something was excessive or that something else should not have happened, but the notion that they should be consulted in advance before any of those kind of situations come into play is, frankly, ridiculous. We have to stand by the rule of law. There are occasions when challenges to the rule of law, as we saw recently, can become so severe that the economic and social damage to the State and its international reputation would be colossal if the Government cannot act effectively. There is ample precedent over the 100 years or so since the foundation of the State for the deployment of the Army and the Defence Forces in aid of the civil power. If the Attorney General is advising the Government that there ought to be or that it is preferable that there should be a statutory basis for this, I am in favour of that. I say most emphatically that, subject to my remark to the effect that we need a full-time rather than a part-time Minister for Defence, what is proposed is not merely sensible but also necessary in support of democracy. --- 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/2026-06-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-24