Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

Unfortunately because of the way the Minister has framed this debate, a 90-minute debate is just not enough. It is not fair because there have already been lots of amendments which Deputies would have wished to speak for.
I want to put on the record that I do not support Deputy Kelly’s amendment. Anybody who is preventing others by unlawful means, whether by obstructing them or impeding their freedom of movement, should be held to account before the law. It should not matter whether the person who is being impeded is a Member of the Oireachtas or not. I do not believe that in a republic you provide particular privileges to Members of the Houses. The Constitution has provision which protects unimpeded access to this House in order to fulfil our constitutional duties and I think it would send out the wrong signal if the Oireachtas was to pass legislation protecting Members of the Houses and not others.
Returning to my point about time, this debate started 40 minutes ago. We have only 90 minutes to deal with a wide range of areas. I do not know if it is in order but will the Minister propose an amendment to the Order of Business to extend this debate to ensure that particularly the debate we all want to have on counselling notes will have sufficient time?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10