Ivana Bacik

Order of Business

Senator Ivana Bacik: I join previous speakers in referring to a letter by 133 practising criminal lawyers, working both in the prosecution and defence areas, which was published in today’s edition of The Irish Times. The letter calls for the withdrawal of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009. Members must take on board the comments and suggestions made by the lawyers in question when we contemplate the crazy Order of Business placed before us yesterday, today, for the rest of the week and for several days next week.

The authors of the letter express grave concern that the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill is likely to be passed and become law without proper debate. As other speakers have stated, the House will have a sham of a debate on the legislation next week, in the knowledge that the Dáil will already have risen and amendments will not be accepted. The Bill will then be passed into law with all of the flawed provisions about which we have been warned by the lawyers in question, many of whom are engaged in prosecuting serious crime. We have to be careful before rushing into legislating in the dark.

Those of us who were involved in yesterday’s debates on several Bills, specifically the Enforcement of Court Orders (Amendment) Bill, observed a farcical scenario in which all Stages of the Bill were supposed to be taken but, following eight or nine hours of uninterrupted debate, we had only concluded Committee Stage, with the result that Report Stage is to be taken today. The ordering of business in the House needs to done in a more realistic, measured manner, one which enables real debate to take place on legislation that will have a potentially serious impact on the lives of many people.

While all Members recognise the serious problem of gangland or organised crime, we have been told by those among the best placed to know that the Bill is not the correct way to approach the issue, many of its provisions are constitutionally flawed and it should be withdrawn and re-entered for more thorough debate at a time when such a debate would be possible, as opposed to when the Dáil has risen, real debate will not be possible and there will be no prospect of having amendments accepted. I wish to say how much we all welcome the return of Mairéad Corrigan Maguire and Derek Graham from Gaza. I hope we can have a future debate on supporting their efforts to highlight the plight of people in Gaza.

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