Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 27 relates to the Schedule which lists the offences in respect of which the Director of Public Prosecutions may seek to have an acquittal quashed and a retrial ordered on the basis of new evidence. The procedure is limited to the most serious offences on the Statute Book, that is, offences that generally carry a mandatory or discretionary sentence of life imprisonment. In line with this threshold, amendment No. 27 added the offence of "directing a criminal organisation" at paragraph 15. Senators will recall that this offence was introduced under the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009. That Act was enacted after the publication of this Bill. Therefore, as the offence did not exist when this Bill was published, it was not possible to include it in the Bill at the time of publication.