Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not require 15 minutes. The Minister indicated on Second Stage and on Committee Stage that he intended to bring forward significant amendments and that he may have to change the name of the Bill to facilitate the amendments. I recall the debate on Second Stage took place soon after the bomb attacks in Boston that availed of mobile telephone communication. There is genuine concern and these matters evolve as time moves on. If the Minister is saying the security and intelligence services in the State, working in co-operation with the PSNI in the North, has solid intelligence of a real threat, then citizens will accept that, under strong conditions, it is necessary to shut down a mobile telephone network to prevent the threat. We will monitor this closely because we have concerns about how intelligence services conduct their business. If there is a real threat to people's lives and this is a means to prevent it, that is fine.

The intent is fine but our difficulty is that it is a haphazard way to deal with legislation. The debate on Second Stage took place weeks ago, following the attacks in Boston. I understand it is linked to the G8 event in Fermanagh and the need for an all-Ireland synchronisation of the intelligence and security response. The legislation we are dealing with deals with money laundering and criminality and the support measures to tackle criminal gangs, which I will deal with at length. The Minister has an acceptable intent to put in place measures to protect people's lives in the State from a real threat that has been proven in recent times. Why can the Government not do this in terms of other issues that impact on our international responsibilities, such as the revelation yesterday in the US Senate committee about Apple? Apple may not be the biggest avoiders but the issue is that it says it pays less than 2% tax-----

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