Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for his comprehensive explanation of the Bill. This Bill was first presented in the Dáil on 16 December 2002. Second Stage was taken in February 2003. It took almost two years before Report and Final Stages were taken in December 2004. This suggests that the Minister was lukewarm about some aspects or the thrust of the Bill. However, he has explained the reasons for the delay and that he had to consult with other member states on problems that might have arisen. I was worried about his commitment but I need not have been. We must be proactive in processing such legislation in order to meet our commitments as part of the European Union and the broader international community, especially commitments arising from United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted in response to the dreadful events of 11 September 2001.

When we enact legislation it is, theoretically, put on the Statute Book forever. We should build a sunset or review clause into all legislation. However, leaving that aside for now, there are compelling reasons for having a review of this legislation in five to ten years in order to assess whether it should remain on the Statute Book. The greater the threat that international and domestic terrorism pose, the more restrictive our legislation and, inevitably, our society becomes. It is a slippery slope which leads to greater and greater restrictions as time goes on. We can only arrest these restrictions on our freedoms if we start to assess whether the restrictions are justified in a changed environment.

Between now and Committee Stage, will the Minister consider the merits of building some mechanism of review into this legislation? He may tell me that all legislation is reviewed periodically by Ministers, but that is not acceptable in this case. We need some statutorily-based period for review for what is, basically, emergency legislation.

The Minister has established a tradition of labelling everything issued by the Human Rights Commission as "tendentious". He should look more seriously at what it says about this Bill. A particular point that struck me was that freedoms and discretion provided for by the framework decision have been seized upon by the Minister as opportunities to be even more restrictive than is expected or necessary.

One of the motivating factors behind the Bill is the protection of democracy. Freedom is one of the pillars of our democracy and legislation of this kind is yet another measure which restricts that freedom. The freedom of the majority must not be scuppered for the purpose of pursuing a small minority. In putting in place the necessary protections we must always ensure that they are proportionate and are in place only for as long as is necessary.

I took the time to go through the transcripts of the Dáil debate on this Bill. While some parties had concerns about various aspects of the Bill, Sinn Féin was alone in its trenchant opposition to it. Given the recent events involving the Northern Bank, is it any wonder Sinn Féin would be irked at the prospect of the Oireachtas debating and passing a Bill dealing with terrorist offences? Sinn Féin seems to shudder at the prospect of the criminalisation of any type of behaviour. Its concept of freedom seems to encompass the freedom to rob, take hostages and injure others. Some would, no doubt, add murder to that list of freedoms. Sinn Féin is the party that Fianna Fáil seems to be eyeing up for the first dance after the next election. Sinn Féin is now out in the political cold, but it was not the sharp and decisive judgement of the Taoiseach that put it there.

Speaking on this Bill in the other House, Sinn Féin outlined its problems with many aspects of it. I hope this House can unite with Fine Gael in saying that we have many problems with many aspects of Sinn Féin and its chameleon-like tendencies. Just as Sinn Féin denied the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, the IRA now denies robbing the Northern Bank and Sinn Féin seems nauseated at the thought that its denials are not taken as gospel truth. Sinn Féin is desperately trying to appease the public, while on the other hand making sure it does not upset its activists. For far too long there has been an acceptance of Sinn Féin's passive ambiguity when it comes to condemning crimes like this. This Bill seeks to clamp down on international terrorism. However, we should not lose sight of the terrorists in our midst and the tolerance that we have built up to their presence and their activities.

This Bill is a response to the challenge of international terrorism. Greater co-operation and targeted action by the international community is required, as well as action on the part of individual countries. It is our duty as legislators to ensure that terrorists will not find comfort in this jurisdiction. It is right and fitting that we should be party to the relevant international conventions on terrorism and co-operate through bilateral and multilateral agreements and take strident action against the perpetrators of such terrorist acts.

Section 9 provides for the new offence of hostage taking and section 10 deals with the offence of terrorist bombing. I fully support the penalty of life imprisonment for such offences. However, a life sentence in this jurisdiction does not always mean life. It upsets people that such offenders are often back on the streets after seven or eight years. That is an absolute disgrace. What measures can we put in place to ensure that life means at least 20 years?

The financing of terrorism and money laundering are dealt with in the Bill. I fully support the measures outlined to combat these activities. The freezing and confiscation of funds is a most effective measure in tackling crime. As the Minister stated, we recently dealt with this issue in the Proceeds of Crime Bill.

The world has especially been subjected to international terrorism since 11 September 2001. Terrible atrocities have also occurred in other countries, notably Spain. Terrorist organisations around the world include al-Qaeda, ETA, FARC and the IRA. It is incumbent on us to do everything possible to stem the tide of terrorism throughout the world. The Bill will play some small part in ensuring that our jurisdiction will not be used for terrorist acts.

I assure the Minister of our full support for the Bill. I hope he will address some of the concerns I outlined in the debate.