It is interesting that whether a conviction is publicised depends, completely arbitrarily, on whether a member of the media is in court. A person could be convicted of rape in Dublin one day with huge media attention around it, while on another day there might not be that much media attention. It is unreliable to have a system whereby we are dependent upon members of the press being in court for the public to be given information that is publicly available and that we say should be publicised. I ask the Minister to…

Although this annual debate can be repetitive, it is important. Unfortunately, it sometimes becomes completely focused on the Special Criminal Court. As Members will be aware, there is more to these resolutions than simply matters to do with that court. Under the 1998 Act introduced in the aftermath of the horrific Omagh bombing, 12 new sections were introduced that were required to be renewed annually by the Houses of the Oireachtas. That 1998 legislation established five new offences. Those offences have been ver…

Every Member of this House who speaks on this topic does so with great empathy and in a very well-intentioned way. The objective of all of us is to ensure that children with special educational needs have an easy and certain passage into education. However, from the point of view of their parents who inspire us all so much, empathy and understanding from us is not enough. It really rests upon us to solve this growing social and educational problem that has developed to a much larger extent in recent years. Obviousl…

This Bill seeks to extend the powers of audience that members of the Garda have before the District Court. Although it is a very short Bill, its brevity should not disguise the fact there is a very complex and lengthy history to the rights of audience that police officers have had before our courts, particularly for minor offences. Prior to independence, it was the case that in respect of all minor offences and some indictable offences, members of the RIC - the constabulary - were the people who were able to give e…

I commend the Minister and Minister of State on bringing forward this very important legislation. I am sure they would agree it is embarrassing that in Ireland today, people still have to make applications under the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act 1871. As Deputy Berry indicated a few moments ago, that legislation is 150 years old. Notwithstanding the archaic language within that legislation, if people find themselves in a situation where a loved one or close family member requires protection, they still have to ma…

One of the great advantages of the Good Friday Agreement is that it changed the way people in Northern Ireland viewed national sovereignties. Prior to that, the majority of people in Northern Ireland viewed national sovereignties in a very binary way. They saw themselves as being either Irish or British. The Good Friday Agreement enabled that to be changed and with the passage of time, people in Northern Ireland saw themselves as Irish and British, others saw themselves as Northern Irish and European, or Irish and …

We must recognise the regrettable fact that virtually every member of the Garda has been subjected to assault or acts of violence in the course of his or her career. It is, unfortunately, a very common occurrence. I know from speaking to members of the Garda that frequently when they are out, particularly in the evening time and at weekends, they are subjected to assaults and violent attacks. It is also important for us in this House to accept and acknowledge that not every act of assault or act of violence perpetr…

I was concerned to see that up to the end of April this year, defence spending was 5% under profile. I am conscious that the Minister has just said he wants to get as much money as possible for the Defence Forces. I commend him on that, but what is the reason for the fact that defence spending was 5% under profile up to the end of April 2022?

Obviously everyone in this House wants to see defence spending increase. There is a recognition that we need to spend much more money on our defence capacity, but the concern is that the money received is not all being spent. I listened carefully to the Minister's answer and I note what he says about the €836 million. It appears that part of the problem is that although we have a minimum requirement of 9,500 members of the Defence Forces, we are not getting up to those numbers. We are significantly below that figur…

While I welcome the fact that we are not giving back money, if it is the case that we are not spending the full amount allocated for pay because of a lack of recruitment, the amount of money the Department is entitled to get for capital projects or other forms of spending will probably be necessarily reduced. We must identify how we can get Army strength up to the 9,500 members we set as the minimum requirement. I know that is a difficult task and that pay is part of it but there must be other elements to recruitme…

The report produced by the Commission on the Defence Forces received a very positive response from the public when it was published some three months ago. The Minister has read it, is very supportive of it and will not let it gather dust on a shelf. When will he bring proposals to Government in respect of the implementation of the recommendations in that report?

It is important to emphasise, as the Minister has done, the world has changed considerably and dramatically since this report was produced. I suspect the world will change even further by next month when we stand in the Chamber again for questions on defence. If we look at the fact that Finland and Sweden have indicated they will join NATO, the map of Europe will change significantly. The only EU members who will not be in NATO will be us, Austria, Cyprus and Malta. I am not advocating that we join NATO. Irish neut…

It is okay. I have made my contribution.

It is 12 years since the enactment of the Defamation Act 2009. Although section 5 of the Act required that a review be conducted, we are only now seeing the produce of that review. In fact, section 5 stated that the review was to be completed within a year. However, we probably are in a stronger position for not having had that review after such a short period of time. When trying to appraise the impact of legislation that is seeking to change how court cases happen and how the legal system operates, we are better …

I spent much of my time in the previous Dáil debating judicial appointments commission Bills. I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle contributed to those debates as well. I am sure Deputy Martin Kenny, who I see across the Chamber from me, did likewise. I bring to this debate a certain amount of knowledge of those Bills, which ultimately got caught up in the politics of the last Dáil, unfortunately. In October 2016, my Fianna Fáil colleagues and I introduced a judicial appointments commission Bill. It got the support …

I regret that once again, I have to speak in this House on the level of violence in our capital city. A dangerous level of unprovoked and gratuitous violence is being perpetrated against people who are socialising in Dublin at night time. Three weeks ago, a 23-year-old man was viciously assaulted on Dame Street after he had been subjected to homophobic abuse. That young man had his left eye socket fractured. On the same night, an Italian man was also attacked around in the same vicinity. Two weeks ago, a 24-year-ol…

I thank the Minister of State for his response and welcome that extra resources have been allocated to An Garda Síochána. However, the issue is the deployment of those resources because, unfortunately, it does not appear that we are seeing a greater number of gardaí on the streets in the inner city. That is the solution to this. How many gardaí are doing roads policing at night time as opposed to patrolling the inner city? Obviously, we need roads policing but we primarily need more gardaí patrolling the inner city…

I commend the Minister and the staff in his Department on producing this very fine piece of work. Trying to put together a large piece of legislation is no easy task. Not only must one set out in a coherent format for what you want to achieve but you also have to do that by making sure that it is consistent with the law that already exists. I am surprised the Minister has managed to get it onto the floor of the Dáil so quickly. As it is such a huge piece of work, we need to give it careful scrutiny. A great deal of…

When we are debating the response of the Government to the war in Ukraine, we have to look at both its political response and its humanitarian response. The response under both headings has been very good. It has been compassionate and accurate. On the political response, the Government is to be commended for having identified unambiguously where fault for this war lies. It unambiguously lies with the expansionist and imperialist policies of Vladimir Putin's regime. It does not rest with any desire for expansion on…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill and I commend the Minister and the Department on bringing it forward. This Bill is long overdue; it has been called for and required for more than two decades. We need to appreciate it is complex and complicated legislation. Notwithstanding the delay, I can understand why the Minister and the Department have had to put such time into preparing this Bill. When one reads through it, one can see that it deals with areas of such enormous complexity, ethical issu…