Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Dáil amendment No. 130 inserts “immediate surroundings” into section 148(1)(e). The effect is that the unauthorised possession of detection device in, at, on, over, above, or within the immediate surroundings of a registered monument of a wreck one hundred or more years old, will be an offence. This will assist enforcement and strengthen the application of subsection (1)(e).Dáil amendment No. 131 provides that warnings relating to the use and possession of a detection device in the State will be in both Irish and English. Dáil amendment No. 161 provides a major strengthening of the law in relation to combatting illegal use of detection devices to search for archaeological objects. It will allow a court in a prosecution under subsection (1)(f) of section 148, to draw an inference from a failure of an accused person, when asked by a member of An Garda Síochána, to account for their possession of a detection device. The provision is modelled on a similar provision in the Criminal Justice Act 1984.