Acts of torture, physical or mental, are to be made offences under Irish law for the first time, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, told the Dail yesterday.

In the second stage debate on the Criminal Justice (United Nations Convention Against Torture) Bill 1998, deputies pointed out that while attention was paid to events in other countries, such as East Timor, Chile and Kenya, torture in Northern Ireland, such as punishment beatings and knee cappings, tended to be overlooked, as did certain community actions in the State.

The Minister, in presenting the Bill, said it would ratify the UN Convention against Torture, and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment.

"This Bill honours an important international obligation and furthermore, it is a positive indication of the repugnance we feel at unspeakable acts committed most frequently by tyrannical regimes which are sadly still all too prevalent in the world today," he said. It was also a demonstration of their willingness to do all they could to ensure that the perpetrators of those heinous crimes were brought to justice.

Mr O'Donoghue said the Bill was not limited to acts of torture which occurred within the State. It allowed a person to be tried here in relation to the commission of the new offence anywhere in the world.

The Bill also prohibited extradition or expulsion from the State where there were substantial grounds for believing that if that were to take place the person may be subjected to torture.

Under the Bill, torture would consist of intentional infliction of severe pain and suffering, mental and physical, on a person for such purposes as obtaining information or a confession, punishment for a suspected act, intimidation or coercion for any reason based on discrimination of any kind.

Mr Jim Higgins, Fine Gael spokesman on justice, welcoming the Bill, said that while they were often wont to outline the happenings in places as far away as Chad, Kenya and Chile, they tended to overlook or not fully appreciate the torture and brutality that had gone on in the recent past and was still going on in our country.

One recalled, he said, the barbaric and degrading treatment meted out to republicans by the state authorities in Northern Ireland in the aftermath of internment and indeed to those arrested in the post-internment period.

"In spite of the ceasefire and the peace process, punishment beatings and knee-cappings are still carried out on a weekly basis and yet those responsible are not brought to book," he said.

Mr Brendan Howlin, Labour spokesman on justice, called for an amendment of the police and civil powers to ensure that people arriving in this State could live, recreate and interface with the civic society here without fear or intimidation.

He said that in the UK Gen Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, was being called to account.

However, he said the most serious allegations levelled against Gen Pinochet could not be taken into account because chronologically they occurred prior to the enactment of the UK legislation.

"My concern is that a Pinochet figure could escape extradition for offences committed before the passing of this particular measure," Mr Howlin said.

On this island we could not afford to be complacent. We could not believe all that nastiness and awfulness existed somewhere else and that we were somehow immune from it, he stated.

"In our own communities we are witnessing the unacceptable phenomena of punishment beatings, threats and community expulsions," he said.

It was even happening in the city of Dublin where he knew of one local community which had operated little short of a kangaroo court at a public meeting.

Mr Eoin Ryan (FF) Dublin South East, said that in this State in areas where there were problems with drugs or socially unacceptable behaviour, groups of people had decided to take the law into their own hands. They should ensure this did not spread. Ms Liz O'Donnell, Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said the Bill was an important step on the road to the enactment of a comprehensive body of legislation which would transform the human rights landscape in this State.