Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their contributions and for the general support of the Bill; it is welcome. As I said earlier, it is a wide-ranging Bill and I appreciate there are many different elements to it, but that is the nature of a miscellaneous Bill. It contains many important measures and changes across many different aspects, not least organised crime, domestic violence, firearms and other areas. I acknowledge civil society, community and voluntary groups, victims, survivors, members of An Garda Síochána and many others who have been involved and engaged in the development of many of these areas. We have more work to do and further amendments will be brought forward on Committee Stage.

I refer to some issues raised about firearms, such as the semi-automatic centre-fire rifles that automatically reload. For a person who goes out hunting, I do not see a reason to have such ammunition or weapon. An expert committee has been established to advise on all aspects of licensing. This is something that has been looked at and advised upon, and the shooting and hunting groups are represented as part of that group. We can discuss it in further detail but based on what we have seen happen in other countries, we do not want to consider something like that being allowed to happen here, without preventing people from genuinely engaging in hunting or lawful acts.

As to the in cameraprovisions, this would only apply to civil orders and reflects how the domestic violence orders are operated, which are intended to protect the victim, not the perpetrator. It will not apply to the criminal side. We are trying to minimise the trauma and impact going to court can have on victims and how it can be re-traumatising. Therefore, it is intended to support the victim in that regard and to try to minimise the distress of the court proceedings.

On any potential implications around the stalking legislation, Deputy Catherine Murphy raised the potential implications for private investigators or gardaí. The new offences would not include conduct where there was lawful authority or reasonable intent, such as the gardaí or a person doing his or her job. It is similar to the current harassment legislation and I am not aware of any journalists who have raised concerns in that regard. I am open to discussing this further at a later stage.

A number of others were raised, one of which was resourcing. I have said a number of times, in particular in recent weeks, that when it comes to policing, providing resources is my top priority and making sure gardaí do not just have the laws, funding, IT, and all the things that they need, but that we have as many bodies on the ground doing the work they need to do. I am confident the most recent recruitment campaign will enable us to increase those numbers as quickly as we can to make sure, in the context of all the laws we are introducing and the resources we are providing, we have the front-line gardaí and civilian staff to carry out that important work.

I again thank colleagues for their support and I look forward to working with them on Committee Stage.

See this speech in context