Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

To a large extent, these will pertain to issues already covered by the present set of amendments and to the Bill as initiated. However, I refer to a proposal on reckless endangerment of children arising from the recommendations of Mr. Justice Murphy in the Ferns Report. I also plan to bring forward some minor but necessary amendments to the European Arrest Warrant Act and the Garda Síochána Act.

l am sure the House will agree that my proposals go a long way towards meeting the objective I set out in the introduction to my remarks. They will complement elements of the original Bill which provide powers to search, preserve scenes, detain people for questioning in respect of serious offences and other powers recommended by the late Eamonn Leahy, SC, the husband of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin. I pay tribute to Mr. Leahy for the work he did before his death in putting together a programme for the reform for Garda powers. My proposals address key issues, bring the law up to date in important respects and will go a long way towards assuring the public that the issues about which they are rightly concerned are being addressed in a serious and effective way. It is very well to give the Garda Síochána powers, but we must ensure these powers are exercised properly and in an accountable fashion. When the Garda legislation was going through the House, I indicated it was my intention in parallel with the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 to bring in the Garda Síochána ombudsman commission, the Garda inspectorate and other amendments made in light of the Morris report on the events in Donegal.

It is important we have accountability if the Garda Síochána is given extra powers. What we read about as having happened to innocent people in Donegal should not be permitted to recur. I am confident the measures in the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the ombudsman commission, the inspectorate, the duty to account, the new provisions regarding discipline and the other package of reforms of the Garda Síochána will mean the reforms being introduced today are not in any sense a tilt of the balance against the individual and in favour of the State.

All of us as citizens are entitled to have our constitutional rights vindicated. The right to life is just as much the right of the victim. The right to property and for a person's home to be inviolable is not just to be protected with regard to the State. A person must also have protection for all rights, such as bodily integrity, the right not to be raped, wounded, assaulted or mugged. All of these are human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. We must set the balance right between all of our citizens, not just those accused of crime.

Although it has taken somewhat longer than I hoped it would to bring this motion before the House, I am very confident the package of measures being put here today are not extreme or imbalanced, but are necessary. The fight against crime is increasingly difficult in a complex world, and the sophistication of many offenders has grown enormously. We now record every Garda interview, but it should be noted that people may not make any statement for hours on end. We have problems and must have rights to take samples such as DNA samples, rights to preserve scenes and carry out searches and rights to detain people for questioning which are commensurate to the threat posed to our society.

In those circumstances I commend this motion to the House.

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