Results 2,761-2,780 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Arrest powers.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Before we get to my party's amendments which have been trailed by the Minister, I want to state that I welcome the inclusion of the sexual assault provision, which goes further than the draft Bill the Labour Party produced last Friday and which is a good addition. In terms of the genesis of this legislation, I posed another question but I do not know whether the Minister has had an...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Will the Minister deal with it in some other context or in the context of this section?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: That is the point.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: The Minister explained that.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Until or unless we change it.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: That is the question I posed.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Is the onus on the prosecution?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Is it not wrong to leave it so in this legislation?
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Penetration.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: No.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: If the Minister would allow me, this is one of the most critical issues and that is why it was raised by the leader of the Labour Party today. Although I was relatively reassured by the Minister's comments on Second Stage, I am much less reassured now for the following reason. The Minister is now confirming that the general application of the constitutional principle determined last year by...
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: That is not constitutional.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: To prove that care was at least taken.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: Maybe that is not good enough either.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I understand the Minister's point, although I am not content with it because I believe it will cause difficulties in bringing successful prosecutions under the section. We will clearly not resolve the issue this evening and, as I have tabled a number of amendments, I am anxious to press on.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: When and if we change the Constitution, will we not have to deal with the issue? We will be inserting an enabling provision into the Constitution to allow the Oireachtas to determine the circumstances in which reasonableness is a defence.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: While the subsection certainly does not make itself clear, it should be acknowledged that its intention is to fix yet another mistake which was made last year, whereby the right to civil legal aid was abolished in certain circumstances. I welcome the provision but it is plugging yet another gap.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: I do not know because, again, we are dependent on the Minister. I presume that is the intention of the section.
- Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (6 Mar 2007)
Brendan Howlin: We had prepared an amendment, the wording of which was much simpler than the section as it stands.