Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

All of these are Government amendments apart from amendment No. 231 in the name of Senator O'Donovan. They relate mainly to the insertion of references to an international protection officer instead of an authorised officer. Authorised officer had been used initially as a standard formulation. The new insertions better reflect the functions to be carried out by such officers under the Bill. Not surprisingly, therefore, according to amendment No. 1 the old references to authorised officers or persons are deleted. As work is ongoing on the definition, which will be shaped by the functions under the finalised Bill, I will not move amendment No. 3 but instead will come back to it at a later point if it proves necessary. I will not move amendment No. 159 for similar reasons.

Amendment No. 231 proposes the insertion of a reference to a valid search warrant. I wish to clarify the purpose of this section is to address a number of loopholes which emerged in the existing section 5 of the Immigration Act 1999 relating to the State's capacity to remove from the State persons who have no entitlement to be here. The existing provisions of section 5 (1) of the 1999 Act, which I restate in the proposed replacement section, already permits the arrest of persons against whom a deportation order is enforced on various grounds. The proposed text of the new section 5(11) of the 1999 Act permits entry to a dwelling for the purpose of making the arrest. The provision follows very closely the term of section 6 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999. That section also permits entry to a premises without a warrant. In both cases there are safeguards in that the consent of the occupier will be required, save where the person to be arrested normally resides there or the immigration officer or member of An Garda Síochána believes on reasonable grounds that the person is within the dwelling. Clearly, the provision does not permit speculative entry without consent. It should also, therefore, be borne in mind that if a person leaves the State when he or she is supposed to this situation does not arise.