Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Section 6 creates certain criminal offences in respect of cluster munitions and explosive bomblets in accordance with the obligations the State will assume under the convention. Section 9 creates similar offences regarding anti-personnel mines. Both provisions extend the jurisdiction of the State regarding these offences beyond the territory of the State to acts committed on board Irish-registered ships or aircraft or by members of the Defence Forces. This is in accordance with established principles of international law.

The Senator's proposed amendments would further extend the jurisdiction of the State to cover cases in which the perpetrator of an act is an Irish citizen. My advice is that, as a matter of legal policy, Ireland has only ever extended criminal jurisdiction in such a manner on a very limited basis. This is primarily because of the very large number of Irish citizens around the world, many of whom are dual nationals. Accordingly, the State has been very conservative in exercising jurisdiction on this basis and has only done so where there has been very broad international consensus on the character of the activity concerned, for example, murder, manslaughter and certain sexual offences involving children. In this case it would clearly be very problematic to extend the State's criminal jurisdiction to acts that are lawful if committed in another state and in respect of which the perpetrator of the act is a citizen of that state. For these reasons, I cannot accept the Senator's proposed amendments.