Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

We will end up with a very different Bill. It is farcical to conduct a Second Stage debate in the Dáil on this Bill when the Minister knows full well that the Bill that eventually emerges will, in effect, be a new Bill. I can only debate on what is before the House. I generally support the thrust of the Bill as published. However, I cannot give the Minister a blank cheque on those issues which are only in his mind at the moment. Only half the picture is before us. Apart from the abuse of the legislative process, this represents the fruits of the Minister's poor judgment. When he issued the Bill last July, he pre-empted the findings of the report of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights which was published ten days later. That report dealt with one of the issues that the Minister covers in his speech, which is the question of the criminalisation of gang membership.

I am in favour of measures which will enable a more effective fight against crime. I have always operated on the basic principle of salus populi supremus est lex. We must protect the safety of the people. In conferring additional and wide-ranging powers, we must ensure at all times that a balance is struck between what is required and what does not unjustifiably encroach on a person's constitutional rights. In this context, I am referring to some of the major issues that are included in the present part of the Bill before the House.

Let us examine the proposal in section 5 which will allow a senior garda to issue a search warrant in "circumstances of urgency". A mechanism to issue without judicial supervision a warrant to search a person's home raises serious questions involving the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. I do not say I am totally opposed to the provision but we must consider carefully what we are doing.

Similar questions arise about the taking of bodily samples by force and the extension of periods of detention without a requirement to bring a person before a judicial authority. We must carefully thread our way before we put such powers on the Statute Book. We must first ensure as far as possible that proper safeguards are in place.

As a countryman, I turn next to a matter which the Minister as a townie might not fully appreciate. Section 30 deals with the storage of firearms. A major reaction has been prompted in rural areas by the fact that the matter is being addressed in the context of a criminal justice Bill. Someone from within the Pale, like the Minister, may say the reaction is irrational.

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