Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The report puts a different context on the debate which we have been having in this House for many years. Unlike other Deputies, I do not believe the annual renewal is a circus or a performance; it is a genuine level of oversight built into the Act. There is no doubt but that it is not one that is robust, that has constitutional protections and so on, but the fact the Act has to be renewed each year provides a level of oversight and an opportunity for it not to be renewed.

I think of the times we have come through with this Act. There were probably many occasions on which we could have passed fairly draconian constitutional amendments which could have put non-jury courts on a very strong constitutional basis. I am not saying that would have been preferable, but there perhaps would have been public opinion in favour of having done that. To do this through the Oireachtas annually, I believe, protected the overall goal that these are extraordinary powers. Previous governments did not go down the route of seeking a constitutional amendment for non-jury courts, which, as I said, could have secured public support.

Equally, we are in a very different place from the days of paramilitary activity being at such a scale that it required significant resources of the State. I take the Minister's points that there are still ongoing paramilitary activities which warrant the use of this court, and I have no doubt about that, but I have to admit to her that my primary motivation for standing up to support the Bill tonight is the way it is used to tackle the illegal drugs industry. I imagine many Members in the House are motivated in supporting the Bill on that basis. We know that in tackling the illegal drugs industry, this is not the only tool that is there, and perhaps we rely too closely on the judicial system and forget too often about issues like poverty and the criminalisation of addiction. Many community supports can be put in place to prevent the drugs industry thriving off the difficulties many of our communities face.

As I said, the Offences Against the State Act is an important tool for gardaí. It is one measure, and we have a long way to go. The Taoiseach has supported me in calling for the roll-out of the north-east inner city model. I hope very soon that we will have that in place in my community, Ballymun. I know the Minister's Department has assisted with a similar one in Cherry Orchard and many other places. Those types of senior official groups give communities direct access to decision-makers and ensure that resources - not only financial resources but sometimes human resources - are focused in communities, and the resources of those agencies are important.

I also acknowledge the Taoiseach's work on the child poverty initiative, and I hope we will start to see real progress on that. I think there is a great deal of commonality between those two projects, the area-based interventions and the child poverty one. We have to take into account what will happen with the citizens' assembly on drugs as well and how we change our laws to better react to the issues of addiction and to prevent the criminalisation of many people who have a genuine health issue. I think there is a lot of common ground across the House on that.

In the absence of those measures being in place, however, and in the absence of our having an alternative to the Offences against the State Act, I support the Bill. However, the amendments being put forward by the Opposition represent genuine concerns that are equally reflected in the report, and the Government also needs to listen to that. Given that it was the Government that initiated the report and it was done so on the basis of the concerns that, I think, are shared by many people, we want to make sure the Government also responds to it. In real terms there is probably one more occasion on which this Government will vote on the Offences against the State Act in the term of this Government. It seems unlikely that sufficient legislation will be in place for us to deal with this before its being dealt with again next year, but we should not leave that as an excuse. We need to respond to the majority and to the minority reports and to examine the issues within them because the drugs industry is not going away, the issues around the drugs industry are not going away, and if the predominant use of the Special Criminal Court - and I think nearly 30 convictions in the Special Criminal Court since 2019 have related to organised crime - is for that issue and that issue is not going away, then we need a permanent solution put in place for that.

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