Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Fair play. The reality is that in the 21st century, we are in this House discussing this Act which, as Deputy O'Callaghan said, dates back to 1939 and the Second World War. The parts of the Act we are dealing with today, and the sections within it, concern issues that existed in 1998 and, prior to that, in 1972, which was a different Ireland. The last review of this Act took place almost 19 years ago, in 2001 and it was published in 2002. That review of the Act looked at the circumstances of that time, which are entirely different from the circumstances of today, and it was accepted that it needed to be continued. That was around the same time as the 9-11 attacks took place. In an international context we can see the way in which that event would have influenced the people who examined the Act. Indeed, Mr. Justice Hederman produced a minority report in which he stated that it was not appropriate to continue to have a special criminal court, which was a non-jury court, particularly with the level of international criticism it was receiving. That is still the case and it is something we still need to examine because we come into this House every year to review this Act and it becomes a situation where what was meant to be temporary legislation has become permanent by renewing it every year. That is not appropriate, and I believe the Minister would acknowledge that it is not appropriate and that we need to have sound legislation that does not require renewal every year. The fact that we are here talking about this on the brink of a deadline, which is 12 midnight next Monday, highlights the absurdity of this situation. It is something we need to deal with and if a review can deal with that, it needs to deal with it in the most comprehensive manner possible.

The failures of all of the legislation and all the issues around this are very clear when we consider the case of the young man from Dundalk who was found dismembered in this city. That shows that legislation does not deliver the kind of solutions we want. It did not deliver the solutions for parts of this city which was ravaged by heroin in the 1980s. It did not deliver when we had members of the Gilligan gang and many other crime gangs running their operations across this city. It still does not deliver for much of what we see today in terms of the crime drug wars taking place and all the feuding that is happening. We have to get into the real world and recognise that legislation is certainly required but it is not the overall solution to all of that. We need to have effective resources in place and we need to have the Garda properly resourced to allow it do deal with these situations. We must also recognise that in the 21st century, much of what is happening now is controlled internationally; it is not something which only happens here at a local level.

I accept that the Minister has said that there will be a review. I have a number of questions in that regard which I hope he will come back to later. Will it be an independent review? Does he envisage that review being similar to the one done in 2001, whereby it would be headed by a Supreme Court judge? Is that the model he is looking at or will it be an alternative model spoken of by our colleague, Deputy McNamara, namely, that it would be completed by the Law Reform Commission? We need to come up with a solution to all of this and I invite the Minister to elaborate on how that will happen and the timescale for it. Deputy McNamara suggested it should be done by January. Is it possible to do it by January? It would be all the better if it can be done by January. It certainly needs to be done by Easter of next year because we do not want to be coming back into this House next year to review this Act again. We need to be able to move forward from this and recognise there are many problems with this legislation, as aspirated by people in the highest legal field. It has been condemned internationally. We need to examine all of that and bring the Act into the 21st century. If we can do that we are prepared to step back and allow that review to take place but we are certainly not prepared to have this continuous farce every year where it becomes a political football. We need to end that and bring the Act into the 21st century. I will hand over to my colleague.

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