Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While not relevant to this Bill, on this afternoon’s Order of Business several Members raised the issue of the President’s visits to asylum centres and found it strange he was not allowed visit one in Athlone recently. The Leader will raise this matter with the Minister’s office and I would be happy if she could look into it.

Senator Conway often tells the House about Shannon Airport. Last week, the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions visited the airport on foot of a petition made by Shannonwatch regarding US army planes that land there. We were given an interesting tour of the whole facility and met with gardaí there. There will be deliberations about the discussions we had there.

Sometimes in Ireland we think we are terrorism-free and international terrorism will not land on our shores. The visit brought home to us how vulnerable places like our airports are to the threat of terrorist attack. People have made the point that several civilians have made their way on to runways at some of our airports in the past. If a civilian can do that, could an international terrorist with a mind to do damage do so too? We put this to the gardaí at Shannon who reassured us they do the best they can. They did feel, however, that in some areas there is a lacuna in legislation and their powers are limited. I am sure the committee will come back to the Minister on how gardaí feel they cannot go on to some airplanes, not just US ones, and search them.

This Bill amends the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005 by creating three new offences to give effect to two Council framework decisions from 2008, namely, the public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, recruitment for terrorism and training for terrorism. While Sinn Féin broadly supports this Bill, it contains several points about which we are concerned and on which we will seek clarification and reassurance from the Minister.

Why has it taken the Irish Government so long to transpose this piece of legislation? It seems highly unusual that the transposition of something like this could take such a long time and perhaps that could be clarified. My party's main concern with this Bill concerns the definition of terrorism as it is formulated in the Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA. It is a very broad definition that could include virtually every act that has some element of organisation or planning. This seems unworkable to us and is something about which we would be quite concerned. By reiterating the framework decision definition, the Bill legitimately raises the question as to whether this instrument has a built-in function creep in order not only to combat terrorism but to extend the definition in such a manner as to cover most public order situations and more common criminal acts as they apply under national law.

I also want to speak briefly about the fact that while there is a definite need for cross-border co-operation in this area, even international co-operation, criminal sanctions and definitions should be the sole realm of the member state. We do not want to hand over this type of power to Europe. Such issues should be for member states alone to deal with. We do not want to see a situation where the EU becomes involved in this area. Sinn Féin would like to see greater checks and balances in the Bill to protect against this.

Finally, I wish to briefly mention another concern we have, namely, data protection. Any data collected under this legislation should have to comply with standards in the Twenty-six Counties and not those of any other member state. We do not want to see a situation where data being shared in good faith leaves the hands of another member state when it is no longer under the standard under which it left Ireland. We simply cannot afford to see an abuse of power by governments in this area. The clearest example of this in recent years came when Frank McBrearty tried to enter the US with his family and was refused by the US authorities. Mr. McBrearty was refused entry on the grounds that he had a conviction for assault. This was despite the fact that the conviction had been overturned and he was found to be innocent of the charges levelled against him. This raises very serious concerns about how data on individuals is retained in this country and then exchanged with agencies from other jurisdictions. This is something we will seek to strengthen on Committee Stage. In the broad sense, we support this Bill. Beidh muid ag tabhairt tacaíochta dó, ach tiocfaimid chun cinn le leasuithe in am tráth.