Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to be very clear. I am not suggesting that we interfere in the DPP process. I am precisely pointing out that we cannot. That is why we do law. That is why we make and write laws, so that they can be interpreted. We absolutely have a political separation. It is important that we do and just as we have that, maybe we will not have a situation where you have countries where there is a political pressure to take an aggressive approach. Similarly, however, we are not in a position to say this is how we hoped the DPP would interpret it. That is why we need to be clear in our law. That is why we put it in the law. It does not matter what people are like and if they are good, wonderful people. I am sure that they all are and I am not in any way impugning persons but I am saying that I have a mandate and I am elected. We talk about giving trust. I trust those to perform their functions but I am also entrusted with carrying through on some of the things that I said I would do when I came in here, which is that I would ensure that rights are protected and that I would ensure that we have a society we are proud of and that Ireland would be a decent country, doing the right thing. Those are some of the things that I try to do through my political work and through our political and legislative work. I have not seen anyone give the case for why it is so incredibly important that we would have persons who are clearly engaged in humanitarian action or who are working for humanitarian NGOs prosecuted and forced to defend themselves in the courts. If we have not seen why that is so incredibly important then I do not know why we are not legislating for what we all say we want, which is that those engaged in humanitarian search and rescue, working for a human rights NGO, are not in a situation where they are being considered for prosecution. I am making a political point here and I do not apologise for doing so; we are politicians. I referenced the position that Ireland has taken politically in the past on humanitarian issues and the value of human rights work. It is one of the reasons we got elected to the UN Security Council. I have referenced the political position the Minister for Foreign Affairs has taken on this issue, as have Ministers for Justice in the past. We have spoken about these issues being important. Ireland has tried to be a champion on human rights and humanitarian issues politically. What is unique and special about Ireland is that we have very often taken that position across party lines. There has been a common concern among many people right across the Oireachtas on these issues. I am saying we should reflect that in this law we are about to pass.

Let us have a clear exemption for humanitarian organisations. Let there be eight countries rather than seven with an exemption in law for humanitarian and human rights action. We can define the exemption as we wish. The Minister of State said the exemption was more narrowly determined in certain cases. Perhaps we should have the narrower exemption and a wider defence. Perhaps we should opt for a belt and braces approach in this regard. It is really important that we do not have a situation where, because none of us would dream of intervening in the DPP's actions or decisions on prosecutions, we end up just seeing prosecutions happening, or there is a fear of such prosecutions, and the consequences of that. For those who are victims of smuggling, it is not the only bad thing that has happened to them. They are usually victims of smuggling because they are victims of war, devastating climate impacts and many other issues. I will not go into the safe passage issue, which we will come to later, but we need to be really clear on this. People will keep trying to travel, they may do so with the assistance of smugglers and the latter may take advantage of them. As I have said - I said it many years ago when we were debating Operation Sophia - the cause of deaths in the Mediterranean is not simply the existence of boats; it is the existence of desperation.