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

I move amendment No. 13:
In page 14, to delete lines 25 to 40, and in page 15, to delete lines 1 and 2.
This amendment seeks to delete lines 25 to 40. Back in April at the height of what are now called the fuel protests, the Minister added fuel to a volatile situation. He essentially called for the Defence Forces to be deployed to assist gardaí in removing fuel protest blockades. It was a serious escalation and provocation at a time when the Government should have been focusing, and all Ministers, particularly the Minister for justice, should have been focusing on de-escalating the protests. We then had a situation a few weeks later. Out of the blue there were amendments brought forward by the Minister for Defence, added to the Minister for justice, to expand the deployment of Defence Forces under aid to civil power. There has been no explanation as to what happened to bring this situation about. When the Minister for Defence was before the justice committee on Committee Stage, she was completely evasive or ignorant. She was certainly unable to answer specific questions on why now and what additionality would be allowed or provided to the Defence Forces that is currently not provided in law. We do not know where the impetus to make these changes came from at this time, and why they are being made in such a rushed manner as part of a miscellaneous Bill, which as we have already discussed, covers a huge range of unrelated matters.
We have been clear in Sinn Féin. There are issues, particularly regarding our naval services, contained in these measures that we fully support. We support the concept in principle of aid to civil power. However, we also believe there has to be utmost accountability and transparency. There are serious concerns about what the Government and the justice and Defence Ministers are bringing forward and why they are doing it in the manner they are. The provisions on aid to civil power raise serious questions as to whether the Government, in an underhand way, is trying to amend the law so it can become common practice for the Defence Forces to be used for the policing of protests. We know An Garda Síochána is the primary civilian policing authority, and any Defence Forces support has to remain exceptional, timebound and tightly controlled. Amendment No. 13 proposes the deletion of the provision in the Bill regarding aid to civil power. If those powers are needed, let us deal with them where they should be dealt with as part of a defence Bill where there can be proper scrutiny by the sectoral committee responsible for that and proper analysis of what exactly the Government is proposing and why. The Government should tell the Minister for Defence to bring forward a Bill that deals with that.
Amendment No. 14 would require an annual report and review of these sections in the event that the Government refuses to accept amendment No. 13, to allow a bit of democratic scrutiny of something that is crucially important. It deals with the policing of protests and many other areas. There are huge concerns about this provision. It is not so much what is in the provision as why it has been brought forward in the manner it has been.

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Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10