Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. She has raised two issues. One is the mechanism of the warning and why an offence is not immediately committed. The second relates to the issue of a report. I propose to table an amendment on Report Stage that is broader than the amendment she has proposed. This amendment is specifically targeted at the effect of the warnings. I am going to propose a broader review to look at the totality of the effect of the legislation when it is enacted. We can include the warnings in that review. I will take advice on the issue but if members feel strongly about it, we could probably specify in the amendment that a review is to include an assessment of the operation of the warning system, which I know is an issue that members have spent a lot of time on.

The reason for the warning is to find a legal mechanism to balance the right to protest and the right to access services. It is a new mechanism in this context. There has been considerable discussion and the exchange of many ideas as to how this might be dealt with between my Department, legal advisers, drafters, the Attorney General, the Department of Justice and the Garda. The system has been proposed for the following reason, as I understand it. How do we facilitate legitimate protest that passes through safe access zones while at the same time giving the Garda the powers it needs to move in very quickly and decisively on the kind of situations we have all been made aware of? Those are situations of women being harassed on their way into medical service facilities. This mechanism allows the Garda to immediately move and tell protestors they are in contravention of the law because they are in a safe access zone and engaging in the prohibited behaviour. It allows the gardaí to issue a formal warning, which is recorded, and allows them to tell the protestors they have to stop.

No offence has been committed at this point. This is important when we come to the second bit. If they continue, they can essentially be charged. They will have committed an offence. As with many things in Ireland, we rely on the discretion of the gardaí to do this in a sensible way. Our belief is that what does is immediately give the gardaí the powers they need to act in the areas - in all the examples we have been given. There are obvious examples. In these cases, the gardaí can move in.

Contrary to that, imagine a pro-life or pro-choice march gathered at the Garden of Remembrance, where some of these marches gather, and they decide to walk to Molesworth Street. They will walk by the Rotunda, the family planning centre at the top of Parnell Street and inevitably they will walk within 100 m zones of GPs. We are not demarcating on the streets where these safe access zones are so you will have very legitimate protest - pro-life or pro-choice. Remember the legislation is neutral as to which it is. If we did not have the warning system, people marching could be guilty of an offence for simply having walked past the Rotunda with signage saying, "We demand access to termination services" or "We demand you stop access to termination services". As I understand it, the warning system is in place for this reason. The gardaí have discretion. Nobody has committed an offence, which is important.

Obviously, within the area of the Oireachtas, there is full exemption, as there should be. We have tried to find a way of facilitating legitimate protest on either side of this argument while trying to close off any loopholes.

One of the things that was explored was whether we should specify that you are not allowed to engage in this behaviour targeted at a specific premises - for example, if it is targeted at the Rotunda or a specific GP practice. The challenge arose as to what would happen if people said they were not targeting any specific area but were simply marching between the Rotunda and the Irish Family Planning Association, which is about 200 m away from the Rotunda. Are they at a single place or is this just a march in a loop? All of these things were pored over over a long period of time. It is tricky. The reason is that the gardaí can immediately move very clearly on the things we know we are trying to stop - the kind of behaviours from which we are trying to protect service users and providers - while making sure people do not inadvertently commit an offence by having a legitimate protest. Remember they could be marching through or engaged in behaviour in a safe access zone not knowing they are in a safe access zone - 100 m from any GP clinic. This allows the gardaí to say, "Look, you're in a safe access zone. You haven't committed any offence but you need to stop". That is the rationale.