Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I am getting more confused. We are not discussing diplomatic immunity, which is a concept also covered in the legislation. The amendment highlights that a state could grant a pardon or an amnesty to a non-diplomat, which would strike at the heart of the notion of an international law system and which would prevent individual states from protecting citizens who committed heinous crimes from being held to account by the world court. The notion that any republic could by decree of a maverick president undermine the rule of international law strikes at the concept the ICC is set uniquely to address, as my colleague, Deputy Michael D. Higgins, stated.

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