Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The principal offences under the Bill will attract an unlimited fine and up to five years imprisonment or both on conviction on indictment. This penalty level puts the offences into the category of arrestable offences which are automatically then subject to various powers under general criminal justice legislation.

I mentioned on Second Stage yesterday my opinion that these offences should also be treated as serious offences for the purpose of the Bail Act 1997, section 2 of which permits a court to refuse bail to a person charged with a serious offence if such refusal is reasonably considered necessary to prevent commission of a serious offence by that person. A serious offence means an offence listed in the schedule to the Bail Act which is punishable by five years imprisonment or more. Accordingly, this new section will add the principal offences under the Bill to the Schedule to the Bail Act 1997.