Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understand that amendments Nos. 5 to 7, inclusive, are being discussed together. It is late and I am not going to speak too long to these amendments. I have said all that I have to say about this Bill. It is unfortunate that the defence we sought was removed; it should have been treated as an exemption if one is a humanitarian organisation or acting for humanitarian purposes. We have lost that.

Amendments Nos. 5 to 7, inclusive, are very basic amendments. I understand the Minister of State does not propose to accept these amendments but maybe I am wrong. These amendments are so factual that I am going to read them out.

Amendment No. 5 reads: "The Minister shall, on an annual basis following the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas detailing— (a) the number of prosecutions not pursued due to a humanitarian defence". This speaks directly to what the Minister of State said on the last occasion, that he did not expect any prosecutions to be brought if it was a humanitarian organisation or someone acting for humanitarian purposes. We need to see the evidence for that.

The amendment continues: "(b) the number of prosecutions pursued where a humanitarian defence was employed, and (c) any impact which this Act may have had in respect of the level of engagement of humanitarian organisations in humanitarian activity in respect of smuggled persons".

All of the research, comments and evidence from the organisations on the ground are that this legislation will have a chilling effect on humanitarian activities.

Amendment No. 6 provides the Minister shall, within 12 months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses in regard to training and so on. That is clearly set out. Amendment No. 7 provides that the Minister shall, within 12 months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas setting out proposals to strengthen the identification of smuggled persons and the potential for human rights experts from non-governmental organisations, NGOs, to assist in identification and support of smuggled persons. This comes directly from the UN protocol, which sets out the protection of smuggled persons as one of its main purposes.

I will finish by referring to some of the recommendations of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, in regard to the absence of data. The commission informed us - this was at the point when the Bill was at general scheme stage - that the Bill is silent on data collection, as it still is. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR, recommends that states should continually assess the human rights impact of migration measures and consider facilitating independent monitoring of the operation of migration policies and legislation. It further states that the Council of the European Union has stressed the need to significantly increase and improve the collection, sharing and analysis of data and knowledge about migrant smuggling in order to develop more effective, co-ordinated evidence-based policies. On the previous occasion, I cited the European Parliament and I will do so again. It states that member states should put in place adequate systems to monitor the enforcement and effective practical application of the facilitators' package - which is the overall name for the directive and decision that this legislation is trying to implement - by collecting and recording annually information about the number of people arrested for facilitation at the border and inland and so on. There are, therefore, any number of organisations telling us that we need to collect data.

In regard to human trafficking, Ireland has been placed on a watch list by a particular organisation in the United States. The Minister of State took exception to us quoting it on the last occasion, but they are the facts.

I ask the Minister of State to take on board these three amendments. I indicated that I could not vote for this legislation, even though I see the importance of it in terms of strengthening the penal procedure and penal provisions to stop smuggling and to catch smugglers. Unfortunately, in trying to do that we have made it much harder for humanitarian organisations on the ground by not providing them an exemption and by providing that we will only allow it as a defence, which is a penalty. Even if there is no prosecution, they are being penalised. That is unacceptable. I might have supported the Bill if the Minister of State had been prepared to take these three amendments on board because they are very factual. It would show that the Government is opening to learning and to putting the evidence before us and, in the future, changing the legislation accordingly, if necessary.

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