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

I move amendment No. 15:
In page 7, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following:
“Amendment of section 5 of Principal Act
6. Section 5 of the Principal Act is amended by—
(a) the insertion of the following subsection:
“(2A) A body corporate that directs the activities of a terrorist group (at any level of its organisational structure) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine.”,
and
(b) the substitution, in subsection (4), of “Subsections (1), (2) and (2A)” for “Subsections (1) and (2)”.”.
This amendment relates to a requirement of Article 18 of the directive and concerns sanctions for legal persons. The term "legal persons" denotes a body corporate such as registered and statutory organisations. Article 17 of the directive requires that legal persons can be found liable for offences under the directive and Article 18 requires that they can be punished by fines. A body corporate is a person under Irish law and thus can be found liable for the same offences as a so-called natural person can. This applies to all the offences provided for in the principal Act and the Bill. One offence that does not currently carry a fine is that of directing a terrorist group, which is criminalised via section 6 of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998.
This section makes it an offence to direct an unlawful organisation and section 5 of the principal Act designates terrorist groups as unlawful organisations. However, the 1998 Act only provides for sanction for this offence via imprisonment. It does not provide for fines. An amendment, therefore, was required to provide for this. The amendment provides for the specific offence of directing a terrorist group by a body corporate and provides for a corresponding penalty of a fine to comply with Article 18.

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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