Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not raising it as a major issue. I notice further on in that section that jurisdiction is conferred in respect of persons "ordinarily resident in the State". Section (10) reads: "For the purposes of this section, a person shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident in the State if he or she had his or her principal residence in the State for the period of 12 months immediately preceding the alleged commission of the offence." How will that be proved? What is the principal residence? How will it be proved that somebody had a principal residence in Ireland? If we are dealing with a non-Irish citizen, which this section deals with, how can we establish proof that the person is ordinarily resident in the State by reference to that? It seems to me that there should be a presumption if a person is charged as a person "ordinarily resident in the State" that he or she is such a person rather than that the Garda would have to work out his or her principal residence, whether it was in the State, whether the person had a house in Crossmaglen or Torremolinos, an apartment in Dublin, or whatever. If the Minister is going to make this workable, there should be a presumption that the person charged as a person resident in the State was so resident until the person shows otherwise. I cannot imagine how the Garda could in effect prove that a person had a principal residence for 12 months prior to an event. It would be very difficult to do that.