Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Dáil Éireann made five amendments to the Bill as passed by the Seanad on 6 April 2004, which I commend to this House. Amendment No. 1 to section 3, puts beyond doubt the needed extra-territorial scope of the section as required by the 1988 convention and protocol. Doubts were raised by reference to the definitions of "ship" and "fixed platform" in section 1, as passed by Seanad Éireann.

Amendment No. 2, to section 4(5), closes a procedural loop by clearly requiring the delivery to a member of the Garda Síochána of a suspect arrested by a member of the Defence Forces. Such delivery was already required by the section in the case of any suspect delivered to a member of the Defence Forces by the master of a ship or person in charge of the fixed platform.

Amendments Nos. 3 and 4, to section 7(4), are merely technical consequential amendments revising cross-references to reflect the substitution of more detailed provisions of the original section 3. Amendment No. 5 is a technical redrafting of the original section 10 in accordance with standard drafting practice as in, for example, the parallel Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Bill 2002, sponsored by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. No change in substance is involved.

The effect of the substantive amendments proposed to the 1967 Criminal Procedure Act by both Bills is to ensure that cases involving murder or attempted murder will not, on a plea of guilty, be dealt with summarily in the District Court or sent forward for sentence, and that in such cases applications for bail must now go to the High Court.