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. 19:
In page 8, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following:
“Amendment of section 13 of Principal Act
7. Section 13 of the Principal Act is amended by—
(a) the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (5):
“(5) (a) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (1), it shall not be necessary to prove that—
(i) the funds concerned were wholly or partly used for the purpose of carrying out an act referred to in that subsection (1), or
(ii) the accused was aware of the specific act for which the funds concerned were, or were to be, wholly or partly used.
(b) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (3) to which paragraph (a) of that subsection applies, it shall not be necessary to prove that the funds concerned were wholly or partly used for the benefit or purposes of a terrorist group within the meaning of Part 2.
(c) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (3) to which paragraph (b) of that subsection applies, it shall not be necessary to prove that—
(i) the funds concerned were wholly or partly used for the purpose of carrying out an act referred to in the said paragraph (b), or
(ii) the accused was aware of the specific act for which the funds concerned were, or were to be, wholly or partly used.”,
(b) the substitution, in subsection (6), of “Subsections (1), (2), (3) and (4)” for “Subsections (1) and (2)”,
(c) the substitution, in subsection (7), of “Subsections (1), (2), (3) and (4)” for “Subsections (1) and (2)”,
(d) the insertion of the following subsection:
“(9) Subsections (9) and (10) of section 6 shall apply for the purposes of this section as they apply for the purposes of that section subject to the modification that the reference in the said subsection (9) to an offence under that section shall be construed as a reference to an offence under this section.”.”.
Amendment No. 19 relates to section 13 of the Principal Act and is intended to give effect to requirements of the 2017 directive. Section 13 of the Act relates to the offence of financing terrorism, which is linked to Article 11 of the directive. Paragraph (2) of Article 11 stipulates that in respect of the offence of financing terrorism, it shall not be necessary that the funds in fact be used to commit terrorist offences nor that the offender know for which specific terrorist offence the funds are to be used. Currently section 13(5) of the principal Act only partially covers these requirements. Paragraphs (a) to (c) of section 13(5), as proposed to be inserted by this amendment, are more comprehensive, ensuring full compliance. The amendments to section 13(6) are compliance provisions in respect of jurisdictional requirements of the directive in Article 19. Paragraph (1) of Article 19 of the directive requires that member states establish jurisdiction where certain conditions are met; for instance, where the act is committed by an Irish citizen. The amendments to section 13(6) of the principal Act provide for these in respect of the offence of financing terrorism. The amendment to section 13(7) is, again, linked to jurisdictional requirements of the directive and serves to extend jurisdiction in respect of the terrorist financing offence when committed outside the State, beyond those listed in section 13(6), under another set of conditions which are referred to in section 43 of the principal Act. This is to meet the requirements of paragraph (4) of Article 19 of the directive.
Amendment No. 20, which is the final amendment, builds on amendment No. 19 in relation to extraterritorial jurisdiction of the terrorist financing offence. It amends section 43 of the principal Act, which relates to proceedings for offences committed outside the State. The amendment requires that the terrorist financing offences, when committed outside the State, be only proceeded against with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, as is required for other terrorist offences in the Act. It also gives further effect to paragraph (4) of Article 19 of the directive mentioned previously. That paragraph requires that member states take measures to establish jurisdiction over terrorism offences where the member state refuses to surrender or extradite a person suspected or convicted of such an offence to another member state or to a third country. Section 43 of the principal Act already does this for a range of terrorist offences where the DPP consents. However, the terrorist financing offence was not fully encompassed by this, so this technical amendment No. 20 rectifies that gap.

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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