Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is a bit fatuous, in that the arming of certain groups in the State, even though their target was not this State but was the British involvement in Northern Ireland, was considered a threat to this State. Hence the Offences against the State Act and all of the apparatus that is around that.

This section is so broad that it is inherently open to abuse. I want to be very clear when I posit this idea that I am not talking about either the current stand-in Minister or Deputy McEntee, but if the Minister for Justice espouses cheating on these sections, in the media age in which we live, it would be clearly detrimental to the stability of the Government, etc. In Britain, this is a big thing where one has all of this nonsense. Is that something where a Garda Commissioner might just say that he or she has a bit of information? This section is so broad that it could mean anything. That is quite damaging. I apologise to the Minister because I want to be very clear that I am not talking about him, Deputy McEntee, or about any particular Minister for Justice but this is just so broad that it could, I would think, be a charter for political policing in the wrong hands and we have to legislate for eventualities. To be clear, I am equally not talking about Sinn Féin's ascent to power but we have had Ministers for Justice in the past who have abused the machinery of the Department and we know that. We have had phone tappings and all sorts of things. If it has happened once, it can happen twice. I feel quite uncomfortable about that legislation in that context which is why I will be pressing the amendment.