Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

I accept that the Minister is making the case, and he makes it strongly in terms of the resolution in relation to all of the instances. The problem is that all of the instances are all bundled in together. We have heard the examples that the Minister has given us and the examples that Senator McDowell has given us. The point is that within the scope of what is in front of us as legislation, there is no differentiation or clarity regarding those instances that we have talked about, which have happened and occurred in other countries and relate to armed forces in the context of protest, in the context of the street and perhaps in the context of the protection of private assets and a lot of other circumstances. The Minister has mentioned that this is already happening. We have to look to what is actually being added by bringing this in. What we can see is that it is very widely framed.
I accept that the Minister has made the case that in many of the small instances that occur it may not be necessary or appropriate to have a resolution, but I had asked what was meant by "such class or classes of assistance as may be agreed". Can we look to the categorisation? Can we look to some form of public transparency or regulation as to the "class or classes of assistance"? The Minister seems to believe it will involve defusing bombs or looking for missing persons, etc. Let us have a number of those circumstances set out. This is done in the defence sector in general, in terms of why the armed forces might be deployed by the Minister for Defence usually. There are sets of circumstances that are listed. If the Minister does not want to have the safeguard of a resolution, and since we have not had the advantage of pre-legislative scrutiny that would have allowed the teasing out of these issues properly, can he give clarity on whether he intends to bring any kind of light or clear regulation, or any accountability, in terms of the question of which class and classes of assistance this may be used for? The examples that have been given are all very worthy, but right now that is not a closed set. We do not know. It is wide open, and, with respect, the Minister may not be the Minister for justice in the future. There may be other Ministers for justice. We have seen that where there are powers of this kind, we need transparency and clarity around how they may be used. We need only look to the United States, where there have been very worrying uses of powers in relation to civilian protest very recently. In that context, I am asking whether, similar to the conditions that the Minister for Defence specifies around the use of the Defence Forces, there will be some transparency on the "class or classes of assistance as may be agreed". This could be done on an instance-by-instance basis or, ideally, by regulation that is publicly available. What are the alternative mechanisms?

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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