Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If the Acting Chairman gives me one second, I will get my train of thought back. I beg his pardon.

I looked at a number of issues and a number of documents. In particular, I looked at the submission made by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. It made a number of detailed submissions which the Minister of State referred to in his speech on Second Stage but which have not been taken on board whatsoever. It said section 9 would have a chilling effect. In its submission on the general scheme - it is still applicable to the Bill - the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission indicated that the approach taken in the Bill, which provides for humanitarian assistance as a defence rather than an exemption, is not in accordance with international recommendations. It states:

...in practice it means that a person acting on behalf of a "bona fide organisation" or for "humanitarian purposes" will likely be charged with an offence under section 5 [which it was at the time but which is section 9 now], and thereafter it will be for that person to prove their innocence. Accordingly, this will likely have a chilling effect on people providing assistance to people seeking international protection, or people acting on humanitarian grounds.

There are many more matters I could highlight - I will come back to them - but maybe I will sit down and get the Minister of State's response as to why that was ignored by the Government in the context of the submissions. Other submissions were made, but I will return to those. As the commission indicated, it will have a chilling effect.

A young German-Irish person is facing serious charges in Greece. He, along with a young lady, has been facing those charges for a number of years. Both were arrested in 2018. The case was adjourned this week. That is just one example of where someone was trying to help and is now faced with serious charges in Greece. Now here, in the guise of protecting humanitarian assistance, we are actually criminalising the person or organisation involved, which is very worrying. They will be charged and then they will have to show that they are innocent. I will sit down, give myself a chance to reflect and allow the Minister of State the opportunity to reply.

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