Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before we begin, may I thank the chairman and members of the select committee for sitting so early and for being so bright eyed and bushy tailed at this time. We will re-engage with each other later in the morning. At some stage, I think we should have a meeting at 7.30 a.m. and then all go off to breakfast.

Let me make a general opening remark on the Bill. I remind members of some of the matters I mentioned on Second Stage. I intend to introduce a number of amendments on Report Stage to deal with the threat to life and property posed by explosive devices which make use of mobile communications technology in their construction and activation. The purpose of these amendments will be to allow for a direction to issue to mobile phone service providers to cease service provision in a limited area in order to prevent death or damage to property. The provision will contain safeguards to ensure that any interference with services is limited to the extent necessary to deal with the threat. In order that all Members of the House will have an opportunity to consider these new elements of the Bill, I am advised that they should be introduced on Report Stage rather than on Committee Stage. This will involve a procedural recommital to Committee Stage before the whole House to allow for the new elements to be considered in depth. Report Stage is scheduled for 22 May 2013. Deputies may also wish to note that as these provisions are outside the scope of the current Title of the Bill, it will be necessary to amend the Title.

The upcoming G8 summit in County Fermanagh has brought a particular reality to the necessity for this legislation. It is possible that terrorist groups may try to use the occasion of the summit to, at the very least, garner publicity for themselves. This is not to ignore the very real danger of the loss of life if such a device were successfully detonated. In addition to those proposed amendments, I hope that it may be possible to bring forward other provisions as Report Stage amendments, some of which were contained in the general scheme as published last year. There is pressure on the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel arising from the increased burden of troika related legislation, so it was not possible to include them in the Bill as originally published or as Committee Stage amendments. These amendments may include a provision to transfer the authorisation and monitoring of trust or company service providers, or TCSPs, as they are known, which are subsidiaries of credit or financial institutions to the Central Bank and technical amendments to refine certain references to lawyers, competent authorities and the monitoring of unusual or complex transactions.

I am sorry that I interrupted the Chairman but it is important that I put on record that we are in order in a procedural sense when we get to Report Stage.