Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 17 was raised on Committee Stage and provides that a statement of evidence of a witness taken in accordance with a letter of request and certified by or on behalf of the court or tribunal is admissible as evidence of any fact stated therein if such oral evidence would be admissible. As the Minister indicated on Committee Stage, subsection (10) of this section provides for a court to have discretion to decide if such evidence is admissible and allows the court, when making such a decision, to consider whether the law of the state concerned allowed for legal representation and cross-examination of the person, and also to consider any other aspect in which the taking of evidence may differ from the procedures used in Ireland. The proposed amendment is therefore superfluous and repetitive. As the Bill stands, the court already has discretion to exclude evidence under section 10 and as the Minister indicated on Committee Stage, it is not proposed to accept this amendment.

With regard to amendments Nos. 18 and 19, I agreed it is correct that a judge should be satisfied that the section applies to a request from another state for evidence rather than that it should appear to the judge that the request relates to this section. The judge cannot, however, be satisfied before issuing a warrant for evidence that a warrant is necessary for entry or that the occupier has not consented or is unlikely to consent to entry. It is in the order that the judge be reasonably satisfied with regard to these issues. For that reason, I cannot accept these amendments. I thank the Senators for bringing them forward.