Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I meant to compliment the Minister on the safeguards he included, particularly in regard to the Attorney General and the change in the definition. However, we have some problems with the proposal. If there was a review mechanism in the legislation, or something to say a second Special Criminal Court was established for a particular reason and that it will be done away with once that reason is removed, I presume the second Special Criminal Court would be able to deal with that pretty quickly and get rid of the backlog. If it does, should it not lapse or be abolished?

The definitions of terrorist activities the Minister mentioned are fairly esoteric. What does "seriously intimidating the population" mean? How does one seriously intimidate a population in a democracy? In certain jurisdictions, populations could be seriously intimidated. Perhaps the Minister will elaborate on that. Section 4(b)(ii) states: "unduly compelling a government or an international organisation to perform or abstain from performing an act". This is weird and wonderful stuff. How does one unduly compel a government? Section 4(b)(iii) states: "seriously destabilising or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a state or an international organisation". Some people might feel some of our economic and social structures need to be somewhat destabilised and radically reformed. It is still very vague. The types of offences are extremely broad. That remains a concern.

These are matters which will be dealt with by a Special Criminal Court. Two decades ago, this legislation would have been regarded as emergency legislation but it is now becoming the norm in that it is being incorporated into our corpus of legislation. In our criminal justice legislation measures that would have been regarded with a jaundiced eye are now becoming quite normal. I have concerns about that and this legislation is one area in which these new measures are being introduced.

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