Council of Europe says AG should address Oireachtas every year on case law

Ireland should consider asking the Attorney General to address the Dáil and Seanad every year on the implications of legal developments for Irish law, the president of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly has said.

Anne Brasseur also said the State needed to look at ratifying seven more European conventions including one on sexual abuse of children and on domestic violence.

In an address to the Seanad, Ms Brasseur also warned that the State needed to implement the recommendations of European authorities on issues such as migrant rights, detainees and the prevention of torture, Travellers and other vulnerable groups.

In her first address to a national parliament since her election as president this year, Ms Brasseur said that “while Ireland may be a model member state in many ways, there are still steps it can take”.

Ms Brasseur said that in the recent report on the state of democracy, human rights and the law in Europe, the secretary general of the Council of Europe highlighted Ireland’s need to “consider ratifying seven further conventions”.

She said she wanted to particularly mention the convention on the sexual abuse of children (Lanzarote convention), the convention tackling domestic violence (Istanbul convention) and “protocol 12 of the European convention on human rights relating to non-discrimination and conventions concerning money-laundering and cybercrime”.

The council president welcomed the spirit of co-operation shown by Ireland with European authorities in ratifying other conventions.

She warned however that it was “nonetheless important that recommendations from these bodies are fully implemented” whether they concerned migrants through the work of the European Convention on racism and intolerance; detainees with the reports of the European committee on the prevention of torture; Irish Travellers in framework convention for the protection of minorities or other vulnerable groups or issues under other mechanisms.

Ms Brasseur however praised Ireland’s level of commitment and said that if all countries showed the same involvement as Ireland, “Europe would be a better place”.