Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I move amendmentNo. 101:

In page 30, to delete lines 6 to 47 and substitute the following:

"30.—Section 2 of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 is repealed.".

This section deals with the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998. A jury does not have the opportunity to draw any inferences because there is no jury. We get annual reports on the Act in this House. Some parts of it have never been used, while other parts are rarely used. The amendment repeals section 2 of the Act. The demise of that Act is long overdue. Security normalisation and dealing with repressive legislation was a requirement of the Good Friday Agreement, but we have not moved on it.

There are enough laws and sentences to deal with much of what this State had covered within the Act. We can deal with it within the normal courts system with all the rights and protections for those who are charged. Additional rights and protections are required for witnesses, victims and the system itself.

I get opportunities once a year to discuss the report on the Offences Against the State Act and since I have been elected, I have consistently made the point that the Act should be repealed in full. We have a Bill to that effect on the Order Paper. At some stage, we will hopefully have that debate and the Minister and others will support it. He has produced a number of laws in the past five years which have many of the same effects as this Act, albeit in front of juries of people's peers.

See this speech in context