Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

For this legislation to come into operation, it is necessary that in any particular case the State whose courts imposed the sentence would have to have acceded to the convention and to the protocol. That is the first absolute prerequisite. As currently advised, I do not believe Colombia has done that and I do not know whether it intends to do that. The Deputies will know there is a pending application to the Irish Government for extradition under the Extradition Act by the Colombian Government in respect of the three people mentioned.

In large measure, possibly the same issues would arise under section 9(2)(f) one way or the other. If extradition is not possible on the grounds mentioned in that subsection, this Bill will not circumvent that set of circumstances because the High Court would have to inquire whether it would extradite in order to decide whether it will allow a sentence to be executed in Ireland. What the Tánaiste rightly said was that in regard to the particular three fugitives who came to Ireland, there were three possibilities. One was that they would be extradited, if a request was made, which now has happened. The second possibility is that if no extradition request was made the terms of this legislation might be of relevance in those circumstances. The Deputies will see that is so, but the condition precedent I mentioned is still outstanding in respect of that. The third possibility is that there could be prosecutions in the domestic courts. That remains the situation and it has not changed. We have to leave it at that at this stage. I do not want to or propose to say anything more about the three individuals.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh is talking about rights and standards of international justice. I do not want to become overly combative or querulous at this hour of the day in these circumstances, but——

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