Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

This amendment relates to the application of the rule of specialty in respect of persons surrendered by Ireland. It entails amendments to section 69. The rule of specialty provides that a person may be proceeded against only in respect of the offence for which he or she was surrendered. Article 27 of the framework decision provides that the rule shall generally apply under the European arrest warrant arrangements except where a member state declares that, as an executing state, it shall not require its application or where any of the exceptions in Article 27 apply. Ireland has not made a declaration on this matter so as an executing state, we apply the specialty rules. Specialty means that a person can only be tried in respect of the offence for which he or she is extradited.

The amendment seeks to ensure that this rule will not operate to prevent the conviction, sentencing and detention by the issuing state of persons surrendered by Ireland in respect of an alternative but lesser offence within the same group of offences, murder and manslaughter being the most notable. To achieve this end, it is necessary to amend the revised section 22, inserted by section 69, to allow that the prohibition on proceedings for other offences — the normal effect of the specialty rule — does not go so far as to prevent a conviction in the issuing state for an alternative but lesser offence where that offence arises from the same facts or circumstances that gave rise to the charge for which the person was surrendered. The amendment has the effect of restoring the provision that applied under the extradition laws in place prior to the European arrest warrant provisions coming into force.

The intention of the amendment is straightforward. We accept the specialty rule but it does not apply in the context of a murder case, for example, where there is a lesser conviction for manslaughter, in the case of assault occasioning serious bodily harm where there is a lesser conviction for common assault or in the case of a burglary or robbery where there is a conviction for theft. That is the effect of the amendment.