Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

There is no doubting the savagery and futility of the Omagh atrocity that led to the Offences Against the State Act 1998 being implemented. There is no doubting the total futility of the campaigns being waged by so-called dissident republicans in the State.

However, the operation of the Offences Against the State Act has had a severe and detrimental impact on the human rights of all Irish citizens. The State must ensure the functioning of law and order, of that there is no doubt. However, the State must protect the human rights of our citizens as well. The UNHCR, the Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties have all expressed concerns for the potential erosion of human rights and miscarriages of justice as a result of the continued operation of the Offences Against the State Act.

I intend to focus on the right of arrest under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and the period covered by the report laid before the House by the Minister. According to the report some 764 people have been arrested but only 38 convictions have taken place in the relevant period. This is an example of the potential for the abuse of the rights of citizens under the operation of the Act with the wide-ranging right of arrest for the Garda under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. There is no doubt many people have been arrested for offences and that the right of arrest under the Act has been used as a convenient method to arrest people for wide-ranging offences and potential offences not covered by the Act.

The continued operation of the Special Criminal Court has been widely condemned. Recent submissions to the United Nations report on the prevention of torture have called for the scrapping of the Special Criminal Court. The Special Criminal Court was set up for one reason: to guarantee convictions for the people who come before it. When one considers the history of the Special Criminal Court, the lack of people who have been acquitted from among those tried before the court is remarkable. This shows the sole reasons for its establishment was to guarantee convictions.

I have no doubt the motion will be passed based on the vote on the previous motion. However, in the case of subsequent reports to come before the House related to the operation of the Act I call on the Minister to include the Irish Human Rights Commission and its reporting on the operation of the Act such that it can examine the matter in terms of the human rights abuses or potential human rights abuses that may take place under the operation of the Act should the Government decide to continue with the Act in future.

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