Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

This is a good Bill because it allows for persons in Irish prisons to serve out their sentence in their home country and, vice versa, it allows Irish citizens in other countries to return here. That, in itself, is a good thing.

One of my party's principal concerns about the Bill is that it comes down to the Minister's oversight as to whether a transfer can or should take place. Over the last year or more we have got to know our current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform better than we did heretofore. There are concerns about his conduct, particularly regarding the transfer of people from this country. I refer in particular to the repatriation agreement with Nigeria, where the Minister is allowing people to be deported to a country where the Government has not even ratified the agreement that was made between the two countries. Nigeria is a country where torture takes place on a daily basis, where people are killed for no reason, where there are enormous concerns about how the Government and its police force operates. Such concerns are highlighted every year in Amnesty International reports. I use that example to show that Deputy McDowell is not showing due consideration of the conditions that a person who has been living in Ireland for many years is subjected to when he or she is sent back to Nigeria.

We must have better safeguards stitched into the Bill to ensure that a Minister like Deputy McDowell, or any other Minister, gives adequate consideration to the conditions that a prisoner will be subjected to in the country to which he or she is sent. It is imperative that the Bill takes due cognisance of that fact. To that end, I proposed amendment No. 12. If there are reasonable grounds for believing that the sentenced person may be exposed to conditions constituting torture or inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, then we must think again about deporting that person.

There are many problematic countries in the world that the Irish Government has been cosying up to, whether it be the Chinese regime that has an appalling human rights record, or the United States, where prisoners are being held without due regard to the Geneva Convention. It is important that Ireland holds its head up high, internationally, with regard to human rights. It is also important that when we pass legislation allowing people from Ireland to be sent somewhere else, that we give due concern to that country's human rights record and that the Minister, this House and the Government examines it carefully before whisking somebody onto an aeroplane. That is why I propose this amendment.

See this speech in context