Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

For the Minister's scenario to work, the garda would have to be present for starters, so we are talking about quite limited circumstances. My point is that it is far too vague. If a garda was present and thought that a person was in danger, he or she would have powers under existing legislation to make an arrest. For instance, were a garda to tell someone to run along and move it, that is, were the garda to give the person a reasonable instruction to leave under section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 and were that person not to comply, then the garda could arrest that person anyway under existing provisions. Similarly, if someone was threatening to cause bodily harm to a victim under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, it would not be necessary for him or her to actually hit or stab someone for a garda to have a power of arrest in those circumstances. Therefore I do not believe that a victim's safety is being negatively impacted upon by my amendment. What I am trying to do is get a better balance in terms of human rights. It is very broad to state that a garda could think of a future in his or her head where the bail conditions were about to be breached. That is a significant power and is a lot woollier that it ought to be. The scenario the Deputies want to protect would be better served by removing that "about to" scenario. It lays an unfortunate precedent and it is on that basis that I move this amendment.

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