Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-20
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

The Bill we are dealing with is terrorist offences legislation, the primary purpose of which is to protect people in Ireland from terrorist attacks. It is for the purpose of transposing the 2017 EU directive on updating the laws in respect of terrorism. That arose predominantly because of the attack on the Bataclan theatre and other very significant terrorist attacks that took place in Europe from 2015 onwards. The primary purpose of the legislation, and the reason I am bringing it forward, is to ensure Irish people can be protected from terrorist attacks and that there is co-operation between EU member states to ensure there are not terrorist attacks on the territory of the EU. That is the primary purpose of it.
The Deputy spoke very eloquently about what is happening in Israel but as I said to him on the earlier amendments, we already have in place in Ireland legislation that criminalises crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes. It is provided for in the International Criminal Court Act 2006. We also have crimes for people who are aiding and abetting that. If somebody is aiding and abetting genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, they also are committing a very serious criminal offence. However, for the purpose of this legislation, I must emphasise that it is about the type of terrorist activity that, regrettably, we have seen on this island in the past and we have seen in Europe in the past. The primary focus is trying to protect people in Ireland from such terrorism. By stating that, I am not trying to take away from the points the Deputy has made about what is happening in Gaza or the West Bank. There are legal instruments that can deal with the issue he spoke about, but we are talking about terrorist offences perpetrated and carried out in Ireland and the European Union and the measures that can be put in place to try to ensure they do not occur and that we can combat them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-20