We have worked very closely with the Ministers for Education, and Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to examine education right from primary school level through to our colleges of further education. Clear timelines for the development of a new curriculum have been set out looking at it in an age-appropriate way with a timeline for the junior cycle and senior cycle and also for primary schools. That will involve engagement. There has been a level of engagement to date on certain aspects …

As the Deputy will be aware, Ireland has become a more diverse and welcoming country in recent decades. I strongly condemn, as I know he does, the actions of the small minority of people who subject others to abuse or attack resulting from their own prejudice. On 16 April 2021, I published the general scheme of the criminal justice (incitement to hatred and hate crime) Bill 2021 following extensive public consultation. The general scheme was then referred to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice for pre-legisla…

As the Deputy said, it is really important that we send a strong signal to those who wish to commit these crimes that they will not be tolerated. It is not just focused on crimes but also on incitement to hate. This is where a person, be it verbally, online, in print or in any other type of media actively seeks to incite hatred against another individual or group of people simply because of who they are, because of their race, religion, colour of skin, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. We ha…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." In light of the omnibus nature of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, I will share time with my colleagues, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, and the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton, who will speak to the Parts in the Bill under their remit. This a cross-government domestic response to the crisis in Ukraine, with legislation covering my Department and measures relate…

I thank all colleagues for their contributions and for their support for this Bill. Without wading into a debate about timelines, while some might say what happened in Ukraine was predictable, a lot of us did not expect it to happen in the way it did. At a national level, a European level and internationally, we have responded in a quick manner. We have put measures in place as quickly as possible. In the Department of Justice, and in many other Departments, the priority was to put the structures in place, get the …

I thank Deputy Carroll MacNeill for raising this issue. In particular, I thank her for the way in which she has remembered and acknowledged each and every one of those women who, as she rightly said, died in such violent ways in the past number of years. The memories of those women and their families and friends, and the memories of the many other women who have been victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, were at the forefront of all our minds yesterday and over the last 18 months or two years as th…

On the Deputy's final point, there is funding available, and it will be part of the strategy to make sure we get that message across. It is important that we communicate what we are doing. Part of the role of the agency will be to work very closely with the sector in the way we have been doing. There is a campaign to raise awareness of the supports that are available and make it part of people's day-to-day thinking that this is an issue on which we need to respond and that we should not tolerate any longer. As rega…

I move: That Dáil Éireann resolves that sections 2 to 4, 6 to 12, 14 and 17 of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 (No. 39 of 1998) shall continue in operation for the period beginning on 30th June, 2022 and ending on 29th June, 2023. The motions before Deputies today seek the continuation in force of important provisions in law aimed at combating terrorism and organised crime. As Minister for Justice I am required to lay reports before the Oireachtas on the use of the relevant provisions in the two…

I am grateful to the House for the contributions to this important motion. I thank all the Deputies, in particular those who support this motion. As I said at the outset, the threat from terrorist activity remains, particularly from the dissident paramilitary groups, which warrants the continuation in force of the provisions of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998. I accept it is emergency legislation and is only in place as long as it is needed. As Deputies will have seen from both reports, this is …

Any person who comes before the Special Criminal Court can appeal to the Court of Appeal and to the Supreme Court.

Yes, they can, Deputy.

The point I am making is that in other jurisdictions where there is no jury, if their prosecutor, based on the evidence, decides to prosecute a person, that person does not have an option as to whether he or she is prosecuted.

I am simply responding to the fact that in other jurisdictions-----

I believe I am being misinterpreted in what I am saying.

Deputy Berry has asked if there are other jurisdictions where there are non-jury courts. There are many other jurisdictions where there are non-jury courts. In those instances, if someone is being tried, they have a right to appeal once they have gone through that process. It is the same here. That is simply all that I was saying. If we look at all of this and at the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act, it has been an absolutely vital component in our response to an anti-democratic and criminal force that ha…

I move: That Dáil Éireann resolves that section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009 (No. 32 of 2009) shall continue in operation for the period beginning on 30th June, 2022 and ending on 29th June, 2023.

The reasons I set out on Committee Stage are those mentioned by the Deputy, specifically that the Act in question had not commenced. I had no opposition to it other than on the basis we were pre-empting something that had not been commenced. My information is it has not been commenced, but if it has, the provision is something I am very much open to. I must get clarification on that, however. There is much in this Bill relating to the Irish language and specifications. I know there are later amendments in that rega…

Once it does not delay the process, I am happy to look at it.

We are referring to nine members, four of whom will be lay members and four of whom will be from the Judiciary, along with the Attorney General. The point I made on Committee Stage was that three of those are ex officio members, including the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and the President of the Court of Appeal. If the President of the Court of Appeal is temporarily replaced by the president of the relevant court, he or she becomes an ex officio member as well. It would not be appropriate to provide in legis…

Amendment No. 3 specifies a 20% figure for all judicial appointments. We have tried to set out very clearly in this new legislation that any appointment to judicial office would be based on merit and we must take into account the objective of the membership of the Judiciary in each court. We should have a sufficient number of members who are proficient in the Irish language but, again, we do not set out specifically that there should be a specific number who are men or women. We ask for a sufficient number of men a…