Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)

It is almost 90 years since the Offences Against the State Act was first introduced in 1939. It was born out of a context that no longer reflects the Ireland we live in today. It was a time of constitutional transition and genuine national emergency. The Ireland of 2025 is not the Ireland of 1939 and we cannot continue to pretend otherwise, yet here we are again, for the 26th consecutive year since the Good Friday Agreement, renewing emergency legislation that should have been dismantled and replaced long ago. We were promised reform. The Good Friday Agreement explicitly called for a review, with a view to dispensing with those elements that are no longer required. The reviews have happened numerous times but what do we have to show for them only more delays and more dragging of the feet by the Government. It is deeply disappointing that after the publication of the latest independent review of the Offences against the State Act, the Government is, once again, seeking to renew these outdated provisions, not because it is the right thing to do but because it has failed to bring forward new legislation based on the review's recommendations.

The independent review group made clear and reasonable recommendations. The majority call for a complete abolition of the Offences against the State Act and for its replacement with a non-jury system that meets human rights standards, one where it is the courts and not the Director of Public Prosecutions that decide whether a non-jury trial is warranted, and only when there is a real and present danger to a jury. Yet, instead of decisive legislative action, what we get is another promise that proposals will be brought in due course. Communities do not live on due course. In the meantime, we continue to rely on emergency powers, non-jury courts and legislation that belongs in the archives and not on our Statute Book.

We in Sinn Féin have been clear and consistent. Since 2020, we have abstained on these annual motions, not because we do not recognise the serious challenges proposed by organised crime but because we believe those challenges require modern, rights-compliant legislation that protects both public safety and civil liberties. We support strong and effective tools to combat organised crime, but we also support a functioning, independent and fair criminal justice system, one that is grounded in the Constitution and the human rights standards that Ireland claims to uphold.

If the threat of jury intimidation is the justification for non-jury trials, then why has there been so little action to protect jurors? The Law Reform Commission proposed concrete steps, namely, ending the daily roll call of jurors in open court, restricting public access to jury lists and criminalising jury tampering as a stand-alone offence. Sinn Féin made these proposals in our submission to the review group, yet none of these reforms have been enacted. We are left with a Government that is more comfortable renewing outdated laws than doing the hard work to reform them.

This discussion does not happen in a vacuum. Communities across this State are grappling with some serious challenges relating to crime and antisocial behaviour. Garda numbers are down across the board, in particular in community roles and road policing. The absence of community policing and youth diversion are real problems that have gone unaddressed. These failures have allowed young people, especially those from disadvantaged areas, to become vulnerable to organised crime from a young age. They are being preyed upon by drug gangs as runners or pulled into cycles of violence and addiction, all while the State stands back.

We all know it is true that we need more gardaí, but we also need investment in communities, youth services, diversion programmes, housing, mental health and education. Emergency laws will not solve any of that. That is the reason Sinn Féin is tabling amendments calling on the Minister to finally bring forward legislation based on the recommendations without further delay. This is not a call for leniency on crime, but a call for clarity, accountability and modern principled governance. It is time to end the cycle of delay and to do what we should have done years ago, which is to honour the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement and replace these emergency laws with a fair, effective and rights-based alternative.