Dan Boyle (Green Party)

Rights in a free society are hard won. They are protected by custom, precedent, common law, the Constitution, implicitly and directly, and legislation. A free society should strive to protect all such rights at all times. Very often rights are compromised by citizens who fail to act responsibly to respect the rights of others in society. Unfortunately, a group of no more than a few hundred people are choosing to behave irresponsibly. They do so in ways that are often loathsome and vile and they have threatened the security and often the lives of many of our citizens. Regrettably, this has resulted in legislation of this type being proposed and debated. It must be acknowledged that consideration of measures that compromise the rights of citizens as they have been practised diminishes us as a society.

It is important that political debate is held in a proper context. All the concerns that have been raised in this debate so far today and in the debate in the other House are legitimate views. They should be aired and responded to. We should be concerned about the fact that the measures proposed in this Bill will have an impact. We need to strive to ensure that impact will be minimal and short-term. The main measure in ensuring such protection exists is the review process. This legislation will be reviewed on an annual basis. There is an onus on the Minister in this respect. When responding to this debate, I hope he will outline how such a robust review process can take place.

The template for legislation of this type is the legislation on the prevention of terrorism, which was also renewed on an annual basis on foot of a report that was laid in the Oireachtas Library and on which debates were subsequently held. This current legislation deals with the rights of citizens and gangland crime as opposed to terrorism. The review process of this legislation must be over and above that which applied to the other legislation in the past. The onus should be on the Minister and the Department to prepare a review of the effect this legislation in the first year following its enactment in terms of whether it is effective and whether any of the rights discussed in the debates in both of these Houses have been compromised in any way. The review should also involve the input of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights before a report is finalised and debated in this Chamber and the other House. If such a process does not take place, the fear has been expressed that the rubber-stamping exercise that took place year after year in terms of the Prevention of Terrorism Act will also happen in respect of this Bill. We must acknowledge that these are measures that it is hoped will be temporary in nature. We, as legislators, and the citizens of this country, need to see that they will be effective. We must make sure that they will not be used in any way to compromise the rights of our citizens in general.

Concern has been expressed about the role of members of the Garda Síochána in terms of powers they will be given under this legislation to identify the existence of a gang as opposed to individual gang members, which has been misrepresented in some contributions to date. Concern has also been expressed about the power that will be given to judges in non-jury trials. In passing legislation of this type we are placing great faith in trusting in people we believe are serving the interests of the State, our police force and our Judiciary. It is hoped that in giving them that power, they will use it wisely. It has tended to be used wisely in the past, but these powers should be used sparingly and we should strive to ensure that in time they may not be needed.

The existence of non-jury trials has been the subject of much of the debate on this legislation. As the Minister pointed out, the difficulty in acquiring juries in particular cases has been used as a mitigating circumstance for what has been proposed in this respect. It could well be that in general people are fearful of intimidation in terms of serving on a jury. I have a concern that this legislation does not address that fear. The wider problem of whether citizens are willing and able to service on juries is one we as legislators need to address. Many of the concerns expressed about those provisions can be taken on board.

We all share a common view of the nature of the problem that exists, its seriousness and the fact that it needs to be dealt with. This is not the type of legislation that can be dealt with in a "politics as usual" way. This is not legislation in respect of which one can claim to be indulging in macho posturing to be harder than the people we are seeking to punish for threatening the lives our citizens because that would diminish us as a society. Neither is it the type of legislation in respect of which we should be engaging in knee-jerk liberalism that the right rather than the person is what we should be protecting in our society.

I reiterate that we are debating this legislation more with a sense of sadness than of euphoric delight that the right thing is being done. As to whether it is the right step, we will find that out at the time of the first review process in 12 months time. From my party's point of view, if that review process is not robust and if it reveals that the legislation is ineffective and that rights are being compromised in an unnecessary way, then this legislation will need to be replaced. We must be open and honest in saying that.

I look forward to the Minister responding to the ongoing concerns about this legislation. In the sense of this legislation being necessary to deal with a serious situation, I appeal to him to also recognise that all who have participated in this debate have done so on the basis that they too wish to see a safe and secure society and their contributions need to be acknowledged rather than treated in a way that suggests their response is somehow soft on crime and missing the mark in regard to what needs to be done to solve this serious problem.

I look forward not so much to the passage of this legislation today but to a time when we will not be talking about people in areas like Limerick who use threatening behaviour, who threaten to take the lives of innocent citizens to get their way and, by so doing, compromise the rights of all our citizens. I hope that in a short timeframe legislation of this type will not be needed and we will live in a more peaceful, prosperous and safe society. On those grounds I support this Bill, albeit reluctantly, and look forward to the Minister responding to the concerns people still have about the legislation.