Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

If the House is willing to discuss the amendments made in the Seanad together, I am happy to accede to the Deputy's suggestion. The first amendment made by the Seanad relates to section 5. It was on foot of an adaptation of a Fine Gael amendment in that House and it provides that a record shall be made as soon as is practicable but a failure to record the direction with regard to the preservation of a crime scene in writing shall not by itself render any evidence inadmissible. There was agreement that it would be a travesty of justice if a failure to make a clerical record of an uncontested decision ended up with evidence being rendered inadmissible.

The second amendment originated in an amendment which was put forward by Senator Cummins. It was adapted on foot of a suggestion I made. It extends the definition of a place in the context of a preservation of the scene of a crime regime to include a dwelling, residence, building or abode, a vehicle whether mechanically propelled or not, a vessel whether sea-going or not, an aircraft whether capable of operation or not or a hovercraft.

The next set of amendments looks complicated and formidable but they are the parliamentary counsel's amendments to our amendments. In response to amendments tabled by Deputy Jim O'Keeffe in this House, that there should be no reduction of the minimum mandatory ten-year sentence where there was a second offence, the parliamentary counsel came to the conclusion that the original wording offered by his office was open to the interpretation that the maximum sentence was prescribed and that life imprisonment would be available for the first offence but might not be available for a second or subsequent offence. Obviously, that would be nonsense. There was a view that the relevant provisions relating to minimum mandatory sentences should be amended to make it clear that the maximum sentence still applied.

The amendment to section 148 is a purely technical amendment to substitute the word "education" for "educational" when using the term "vocational education committee". The last amendment is one proposed by Senators Henry and Norris. It arose out of an amendment which Deputy Ó Snodaigh originally made to the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act, which abolished the notion that the Minister could designate a part of a prison to be a place for the detention of people who were not guilty by reason of insanity. Unfortunately, when I accepted Deputy Ó Snodaigh's amendment, because I considered it a correct amendment, there was a consequential change. Section 13(1) was still based on the proposition that the Minister could designate part of a prison to be a place of detention for people who had been acquitted under the Act. It was decided that the provision should be tidied.

The amendments are not amendments of substance. I do not wish to excite further divisions between Fine Gael and the Labour Party this evening as they already have had their divisions——

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