Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

In effect, the Senator is objecting to an amendment that was passed in the Lower House. Paragraph (a) amends section 2(2)(b) of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996, which specifies the rank of garda who may authorise the first extension of detention following the expiry of the period authorised at the time of arrest. In the case of the 1996 Act, a period of six hours is authorised upon arrest. The next period is 18 hours. At present, this requires authorisation by an officer not below the rank of chief superintendent. Following the implementation of paragraph (a), it may be authorised by an officer not below the rank of superintendent. A second detention may be authorised by an officer not below the rank of chief superintendent. Thereafter, the extensions require authorisation by the District Court or Circuit Court, normally the former. The maximum period allowable is 168 hours, or seven days.

The revised authorisation arrangements bring the 1996 Act in line with the arrangements under section 50 of the 2007 Act, which also permits detention up to a maximum of seven days. The amendment contributes to the standardisation of the arrangements across all the statutes dealing with detention. Within section 2 of the 1996 Act there will be an incremental increase in the grade of authorising officer as the period is extended. There is rationality in such an approach. It also has the benefit of ensuring that two different officers of different ranks must review the case for extensions. Under the previous arrangements the same officer could authorise two periods of extension lasting 48 hours.

The Senator referred to subsection (4), which states: "Section 11 of the Act of 1996 is repealed and, accordingly, sections 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of that Act (being the sections to which that section 11 related) shall continue in operation indefinitely". As stated on Second Stage, I indicated earlier in the year that it was my intention to leave this in operation indefinitely. That is the reason for the inclusion of the subsection.

Question, "That the words proposed to be deleted stand", put and declared carried.