Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Instruction to Committee
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

They are, so perhaps we will have a chance for that debate. I am grateful for that. However, it is still an issue that in these last two weeks amendments are being introduced that are very substantive but have not been given pre-legislative or proper scrutiny. This is part of a suite of legislation to significantly increase the powers the Garda, the Defence Forces and many other entities of the State will have. It does not give great confidence in how they are to be used if they are being pushed through at the late stages of a discussion, without proper pre-legislative scrutiny or a proper opportunity for us to bring our own amendments to the amendments. If they had been brought on the formal Committee Stage, we would have had the opportunity to respond to the Government's amendments with our own amendments on Report Stage. That opportunity is not available to us.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02