James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 8, lines 2 to 22, to delete all words from and including “(1)If” in line 2 down to and including line 22 and substitute the following: “(1) A person commits an offence (in this Act referred to as perjury) if he or she, in, or for the purpose of, a judicial or other proceeding, gives a statement material in the proceeding—

(a) while lawfully sworn as a witness or as an interpreter,

(b) on affidavit, or

(c) in a statement of truth made in place of an affidavit in accordance with section 21 of the Act of 2020,

that is false, and he or she knows to be false.

(2) Where, pursuant to an enactment, a statement is made by a person in a manner specified in paragraph (a), (b)or (c)of subsection (1)—

(a) within the State for the purposes of a proceeding outside the State and such proceeding corresponds to a judicial or other proceeding in the State, or

(b) outside the State for the purposes of a judicial or other proceeding within the State,

the statement shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as a statement made in such a manner in, or for the purpose of, a judicial or other proceeding in the State.

(3) Where proceedings are brought against a person for the alleged commission of perjury, the question as to whether a statement given by the person was material in a judicial or other proceeding is a question of law to be determined by the court of trial in the proceedings for perjury.”.

This amendment to section 2 of the Bill amends the definition of perjury so that it may apply to statements of truth in addition to sworn statements and affidavits. The Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 was signed into law on 6 August 2020. This Act includes a provision for statements of truth in civil proceedings. Section 21(3) of the Act describes statements of truth as an electronic form of statement that can be made in place of a sworn affidavit or statutory declaration in civil proceedings. It is important for this Bill to take account of them in section 2 so that a person making a false statement of truth will be guilty of perjury. This is an important safeguard in respect of those statements which are made in place of affidavits.