Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I thank you, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, and the Cathaoirleach for facilitating this debate. I thank the Senators who contributed. This was an excellent debate where we teased out many of the issues and everyone understood each other. The level of debate was higher than some of the debate I heard elsewhere, in that people fully understood what the legislation involved. It is clear that the position of the Government was accepted in that a number of amendments were not pushed. I thank Senators in that respect.

There has been criticism of the fact that all stages of the Bill were taken in the House today and in the Dáil last week. The Bill was debated for ten and a half hours in the Dáil and for nine hours today. There was significant debate on the Bill and it was teased out. It was necessary that the Bill be passed before the recess. If we had waited, as some people suggested, until September to pass the Bill we could not have charged people under the legislation. Criminal legislation is not retrospective. The argument that we should wait until the courts re-open in September is not valid. As soon as this legislation is signed and enacted its provisions can be implemented, people charged under it and, I hope, found guilty of their crimes.

It is important not to have it said that Members of the Oireachtas went off on their holidays and did not pass very important legislation which the people desired. It is useful to tease out issues and, having gone through the House, people accept this is good legislation. It is not seismic. It does not make a dramatic change in the criminal law. Virtually everything in the Bill is already enacted in other measures. It sends a strong signal to the wider community and particularly to the criminals that if they engage in the particular offences of directing and participating in criminal organisations, not only will they be subject to very serious prison sentences but they will go before the Special Criminal Court, unless the DPP decides otherwise. That is one of the key savers in the Bill.

Another saver is the review after a year. The Oireachtas will be able to examine the legislation to determine how it was implemented in the previous year. The Oireachtas will continue with the provision if it wishes. This is not a permanent provision but it is needed at this time. After one or a number of years, the Oireachtas may decide that the threat of criminal gangs in certain parts of the country no longer requires this legislation.

I have heard much about the protection of human rights. We must maintain people's civil liberties. Equally, we must maintain the human rights of people like Roy Collins and his family, the Geoghegan family and of all of the people who have been tragically murdered. It has been said, with some justification, that we in the Oireachtas and others in the wider community were not particularly worried when gangsters were killing each other and that it was only when they began to kill innocent people, such as Shane Geoghegan, Roy Collins and others, that the Oireachtas began to pay attention.

The legislation contains checks and balances. It does not make a dramatic change in the criminal law. It was criticised for provisions that were not included in it. After 20 hours of discussion in the Oireachtas, I hope people will fully understand its import.

I thank the officials of my Department who have slaved over this legislation for the past few months. Within days of the murder of Roy Collins on 9 April, I indicated that we would bring in new legislation and change existing legislation. My officials have been working on a daily basis in that respect. I thank the Attorney General and his staff for their work. While no government can guarantee that any legislation is constitutional, the Attorney General, who has gone through the legislation line by line, and I are absolutely happy it will pass constitutional muster. I am confident that is the case. However, no government can guarantee the constitutionality of legislation but we are happy we did our work in that respect.

I also thank the Garda Síochána, who worked closely with us and advised us as to the practicalities and logistical difficulties with which they have had to put up regarding some of these issues. The legislation mirrors the practical difficulties they face in dealing with this very insidious crime.

I thank the staff of the Seanad and of the Oireachtas in general for their work on this Bill and on many others passed in the past couple of days. They have done excellent work and I compliment them on that. I thank the media for reporting on the deliberations of the Bill. It is important that the media articulate what has been said here so that there is no confusion outside.

I am delighted the Bill has finally passed through the Oireachtas and I hope it will be signed into law in the not too distant future. With regard to the Early Signature Motion, I believe there was a surreptitious effort to bounce the President into passing the legislation to the Supreme Court. It is my view that even though this is urgent legislation, we should not sign an Early Signature Motion but give the President enough time to decide on the Bill.

Question declared carried.