David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am relieved he chose not to make his speech in Irish, as I understand he did in the other House. I am not sure he spoke in Irish because of his love of the language or from a desire to wrong-foot his opponents. He certainly gave a bravura performance, as is to be expected from him.

It is important that time is set aside in this House to review this Bill. I take seriously the views of the Irish Human Rights Commission when it sets out the approach we, as legislators, should take on this kind of legislation. The commission advises "all legislative proposals to increase the powers of the Garda Síochána should be subject to careful scrutiny in order to ensure that the correct balance is struck between, on the one hand, the rights of everyone in society to have a police service capable of effectively detecting and prosecuting crime and, on the other hand, the rights of the individual to the enjoyment of the full range of his or her human rights and freedoms". That is something this House can do.

I tabled a number of amendments which were suggested to me by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, a very fine body. The Minister may be able to demonstrate that my ideas are misguided or he may be induced to accept some of them. Areas of contention include ASBOs, the proposal that it will no longer be necessary to have consent before taking swabs and the ability of a Garda superintendent to grant search warrants.