Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 14, subsection (2), line 34, after "officer" to insert "(other than a member of the Garda Síochána)".

An assault on a member of the Garda Síochána is already punishable by seven years' imprisonment under section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994, as amended by section 185 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006. The Bill would introduce a lower sentence of five years for such assaults, which would be undesirable. To maintain consistency, we need to exclude gardaí from the new offence under this Bill and maintain the current provisions.