I will just keep talking for a second. Deputy Ó Ríordáin is now entering the Chamber.

As with many issues like this, the truncated debate giving Members five minutes to speak on something of such fundamental importance does not do justice to it. If one asked the vast majority of our citizens what PESCO is, they would not have a clue. They would probably think it is something to do with fish. However, PESCO is a very important concept. It is permanent security co-operation, a permanent mechanism within the European Union to develop military capabilities and interoperabilities and to make our military…

Let us have that debate-----

-----and what our military posture should be. However, let us not try, regardless of how the Minister says it, to move along a path by stealth, in my judgment, to a situation that the Irish people will be surprised to find themselves in one day. Let us have this debate in an open clear way, an informed debate on the future of Irish neutrality, what it means to us and how we are going to vindicate it into the future, not chip away at what most people believe to be the stance of the Irish nation in terms of its milit…

Let us have that debate.

Let us have that debate.

Will it come back to the House?

I appreciate the difficulties in the shadow of which the Minister for Justice is operating. This is a very tricky situation. We assumed in 2011 that the law enacted then provided a reasonable balance between what all of us would expect, which is that there can be no mass surveillance of our population and that we are all entitled to what are set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as our personal freedoms in the context of not having our movements monitored and details of them collated an…

The general scheme would be published before the end of this year and presented to the House within the next 12 months presumably.

That would be very welcome because legislation should be readable and we should be able to understand exactly what the rights of every citizen are in relation to data. The Garda should be crystal clear on its rights when accessing and using data for criminal investigation purposes. That is really important. Equally important is the point already made - a question I asked the representative of the data platform providers in the course of the truncated pre-legislative scrutiny last Thursday. I asked how long he thoug…

She has done so. Presumably then there will be a collective view that maybe the issue should be readdressed recognising the fundamental importance of not only matters that go to protection of the integrity of the State but also matters that go to prosecuting serious crimes that are by nature ones that threaten the viability of the State anyway if we cannot prosecute murderers or if child abuse or human trafficking becomes more difficult to prosecute. I am intrigued by the Minister's belief that this is happening an…

Like others, I welcome everyone in the Gallery. It reinforces that we are not talking in a vacuum. We are actually listening and, I hope, reflecting the views of people who are affected by this issue. It is one that is understood by most people and all contributors across the House. I also commend my colleague, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, not alone on his work in preparing and introducing this important legislation but also on his ongoing campaign to highlight and, much more importantly, to address the many issues faced by …

There is a certain feeling of déjà vu about this particular annual process when you could really print out last year's scripts and recycle them into the record of the House. That is never a good situation. Let us start from first principles and ask what we have been asked to do today. We have been asked to continue in force certain provisions of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 and the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009. Those are the two motions before us. First, those enactments created new …

I support this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. Russia's action in Ukraine is not just a gross violation of human rights but also an ongoing assault on the territory and people of Ukraine. It is also much more than that. It threatens the peace and stability of our Continent and, ultimately, all of our well-being. We are focused on human rights violations across the globe, but there is no particular violator right now that threatens our security, peace and prosperity in this nation as directly as Putin and his …

And the girls, too.

It was never intended that the entire judicial appointments commission would interview every applicant. Is a panel of three sufficient? One has to be a member of the Judiciary and one a lay member. Is there a reason three is the required number? All panels could be panels of three then under this legislation to make the determination and do the interviews. The Minister does not want everybody but is there a particular reason the Minister has reduced it to three?

I was interested in what the Minister's response would be. My experience is that senior practitioners of the law are appointed as Attorney General. They play a pivotal role in advising Government and they are the chief legal adviser to the Government. It gives an extraordinary experience to somebody, no matter how senior he or she is in practising law at the Bar, to actually sit around the Cabinet table and run an entire Department, which is the Office of the Attorney General. It seems to me there would be an extra…

There is merit in the amendment. When we saw the judgment of the High Court, there was a need to move speedily to resolve that issue. The Minister's actions are to be commended in that regard, but it gives us the opportunity to see who is actually presenting cases. Many summary decisions are being made in a court of first instance but experience is important in presenting a case. I had the pleasure of visiting the Garda College in Templemore and I know there are specific training modules for presenting a case. It s…

At the beginning of this month, the people of Northern Ireland voted in Assembly elections but as the Minister rightly tells the House, they are no closer to having a functioning government because the largest unionist party is now absenting itself from the very institutions that were so carefully and painstakingly crafted. Just as they are here, people in Northern Ireland are suffering from a cost-of-living crisis. The same issues that needed solutions in February, when the DUP left the Executive, are now even wor…

The motion before the House seeks to extend certain provisions of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021, for an additional six months, to allow the sale and consumption of alcohol in relevant outdoor seating places. Members will recall the hiatus last year when there was total confusion about the legal situations, with local authorities wondering whether they were the licensing authority and with the Garda contacting the Minister directly enquiring as to what was happening. There was a particular diffic…