Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Amendment No. 2 relates to section 8(4) as passed by the Seanad. Section 8 deals with situations where the sentencing state requests the Irish authority to arrange for the provisional arrest of a sentenced person, pending submission by it of a formal request. Such a possibility also exists under our extradition law.

Section 8 provides that the High Court can grant an application for provisional arrest. Subsection (4) sets out the powers of remand available to the High Court once the person has been provisionally arrested and brought before it. Initially, it was provided that the person should be remanded in custody pending receipt of the formal request but as a result of the amendment I moved in the Dáil, the court now has the option of remanding the person in custody or on bail.

The amendment aligns the Bill with section 27(6) of the Extradition Act, which also deals with provisional arrest. It has been my policy that, in so far as possible, the arrangements under the Bill should be similar to those which apply in extradition cases. I had already ensured this in respect of the safeguards available to arrested persons when I moved an amendment in this House which inserted section 9(2)(f) into this Bill. This subsection provides that the extensive safeguards available under Part 3 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 are also available to a person who has been arrested under this Bill. The amendment to section 9(4) completes this approach.

The amendment inserted in the Dáil has improved the Bill and I am pleased to commend it to the House.