Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

We now have a European Convention on Human Rights law which requires every State agency to carry out its activities in a manner compatible with the convention. However, before there ever was a European Convention on Human Rights, there was an obligation under Irish law for everyone to comply with the constitutional values and for every organ of the State to discharge its functions in a manner compatible with the Constitution. Therefore, due process in all of these matters, which is implied by the Constitution and the convention as a matter of domestic and international obligation, requires that people be given an adequate opportunity to confront any case made against him or her. I have no doubt the procedures involved in the operation of this Bill will fully comply with constitutional and international human rights norms. It is not necessary to provide for detailed provisions of the kind mentioned in the amendment. We have the underlying guarantee that the security authority, being an organ of the State to which the European Convention on Human Rights Act and the Constitution already apply, will discharge its function in a manner which fully respects natural justice, the obligations of fairness and the entitlement to hear any party in respect of any decision to be made against him or her in a manner which allows him or her fully to confront any objection, subject to the ordinary rules of law in this matter. Therefore, I am not disposed to accept the amendment.