Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, subsection (1), line 25, after "14" to insert ", 34 and 46".

Although I read the Minister's Second Stage contribution carefully, I am at somewhat of a loss regarding the process by which certain sections of the convention, which are not incorporated in Irish law, will be incorporated in this legislation while others will not. Amendment No. 1 proposes to insert Articles 34 and 46 into section 1.

Article 34 involves individual applications to the European Court of Human Rights. It states that "The High Contracting Parties undertake not to hinder in any way the effective exercise of this right.", namely, the right to make individual application. Article 46 concerns the binding force and execution of judgments. I do not understand why we would enable a position to persist where Irish law or practice could hinder somebody's right to make an individual application or not operate a final judgment of the court. There would be no remedy in Irish law for either of those situations. If, for example, the prison system interfered with the right of a prisoner or somebody appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, received a judgment in their favour but the State declined to implement it, there would be no remedy in Irish law because of the omission of the two articles to which I refer. The person would be obliged to return to the European Court of Human Rights.

I am at a loss to understand how it could be regarded as fair that two of the basic individual rights would be essentially kept at arms length from this country. Therefore, our proposal in amendment No. 1 is that Articles 34 and 46 be added to the list of articles to which section 1 refers.