Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Bill 2021: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2021-10-07
============================================================

James Browne (FF), Wexford

It is reasonably rare, thankfully, that any of our enforcement officers, whether from the Naval Service, the Revenue Commissioners or An Garda Síochána, abuse their powers. When this does occur or when a person may feel abused, there are outlets to complain about those, such as to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, for example. Of course, there is the option for the person who feels that there have been abuses against them to take civil action. There are already appropriate and well-trodden protections in place against enforcement officers abusing their powers. This includes, for example, that they would have to establish those reasonable grounds, if perhaps the case has not gone as far as being tested in court.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-10-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-10-07