Results 10,201-10,220 of 16,849 for speaker:Dermot Ahern

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: The issue under discussion is opinion evidence. Senator Bacik referred to the Hederman report. The normal understanding of opinion evidence is based on section 3(2) of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1972, which states with regard to certain offences related to paramilitary organisations: "Where an officer of the Garda Síochána, not below the rank of chief superintendent,...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: I was then encouraged, as a more reduced measure, to bring in opinion evidence. As I pointed out, opinion evidence has been successful but one must obtain corroborative evidence, which is much more difficult in the area of gangland crime. The reason we are now introducing these measures is that we regard them as an alternative. It has been extremely difficult to ground prosecutions on the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: On a point of information, the Senator stated that a person's bad character must be taken into account. That is not the case.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: The garda would not be called to give evidence that a particular person was a member of a gang. That is not what this section is about. It is about the fact that a gang is in existence.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: No, we are not stating that either.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: It is a garda of any rank and can equally be a chief superintendent under the legislation.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: To answer the last speaker, the definition of a criminal organisation is in section 3.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: To be fair, there is an understanding of where we are in regard to this issue. I would agree with this amendment if we were talking about a garda giving opinion evidence as to the guilt of a particular person. It would have to be someone of senior rank of the Garda to give that evidence, obviously with the addition of corroborative evidence, but that is not what we are about. What we are...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: He did.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: To answer the Deputy's question on the definition of a criminal gang, it is very similar to the definition in the New Zealand legislation but that is no coincidence because that is the internationally recognised definition under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, and a number of countries across the world have the same definition. It is not just New Zealand...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: It is word for word because it is taken from the UN convention. The legislation the Senator referred to was a dramatic plagarisation-----

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: -----word for word, of the New Zealand legislation, apart from the omission of the word "crown" on two occasions.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: To respond to the Senator's point about following my gut instinct and that it is not necessarily the Garda Commissioner I should be listening to, the Attorney Generally fully accepted, in the discussions we had both before the drafting of this Bill and in the period between the taking of Second and Subsequent Stages in the Lower House, the issue of whether we should put in some rank but the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: We touched on this in respect of the preceding amendments and on Second Stage. I cannot accept the amendment on the basis that doing so would give rise to the suggestion that opinion evidence as to the guilt of a person is provided for in the Bill; it is not. Section 13 provides that nothing would prevent the court from excluding evidence that would otherwise be admissible if, in the opinion...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: We are not getting rid of juries altogether.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: The Senator did say that.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: Yes. We are not doing that. Cases will go into the Special Criminal Court unless they-----

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: That is an important rider.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: It may well be-----

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2009)

Dermot Ahern: I am doing so for the purposes of clarity-----