The Opposition claims the Dáil has passed a “liquorice allsorts” and “hotchpotch, catch-all” criminal justice Bill and has warned the Government the legislation will end up in the courts.
Opposition TDs sharply criticised the legislation, which covers a wide range of issues including increasing the number of ordinary judges in the Court of Appeal from 17 to 18, revoking citizenship, larger fines for airlines that carry passengers without appropriate visas, longer maximum sentences for knife-crime offences and increasing the mandatory retirement age for emergency personnel including gardaí and firefighters.
A number of TDs condemned the practice of rushing through Bills at the end of the Dáil term and Labour justice spokesman Brendan Howlin said “it is bad enough that any legislation would be done this way, but for legislation of this seriousness to be rushed through in this way is completely wrong”.
He described the Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill as a “catch-all” “hotchpotch” piece of legislation.
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Minister for Justice Helen McEntee defended the Bill, however, and said “certain changes are required that do not naturally fit into other pieces of legislation or they happen at a time when they need to be implemented quickly”.
“So much of what is in this legislation is really important” and it is important to pass it before the summer recess, she said.
Sinn Féin justice spokesman Pa Daly described the legislation as a “liquorice allsorts type of Bill”. He said the reduction of the years of experience required for barristers or solicitors to be a member of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal from five to two years was “unwise”.
“Personally speaking, as someone who was two years out from being a qualified solicitor, I have concerns that this might cause difficulties in the long run as regards decision-making and potential judicial reviews.”
Independent TD Thomas Pringle accused the Government of “making a farce of the legislative process” with amendments only coming through at the end of the Dáil term.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly said “I have no doubt that this will end up before the courts” as she echoed Mr Howlin’s concerns that “we are creating a two-tier system of citizenship”.
Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan said, however, the Government “must be entitled to decide upon whether revocation of naturalisation is permitted”.
The Supreme Court judged that a procedure used by the Minister for Justice to revoke citizenship was “systemically flawed” and a provision was included in the legislation to address this.
Mr O’Callaghan did not believe the Supreme Court had huge concerns about the ability to revoke naturalisation, adding “a Minister could not do it unless there were legitimate reasons for doing so”.
Mr Howlin said the measure places naturalised citizens “on a different footing to those of us who acquired citizenship by birth. There is in a very real sense unequal citizenship.”
Ms McEntee insisted the provision “bolsters safeguards to ensure the procedure used for revocation is robust and fair” and said it “restores a power that had existed for the Minister”.
She stressed “this power is used extremely sparingly. In fact, it has been used eight times in total. The revocation of Irish citizenship is only undertaken in the most serious of circumstances. The loss of citizenship has serious consequences and each case is considered very carefully.”
Labour’s Ged Nash said the provision to increase the retirement age of emergency service staff makes no explicit reference to the proposed age rise from 60 to 62. Workers are concerned the Minister could increase the mandatory age “unilaterally”.
The Minister said any changes would be voluntary. She said she was introducing the proposals because there are individuals who want to work longer but cannot because the law currently precludes it.
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