Garda Síochána amendment legislation
Deputy Ó Snodaigh asks whether the Garda amendment Bill will undergo pre-legislative scrutiny; the Minister hopes to publish and enact it next session, subject to time.
Ba mhaith liom ceist a chur maidir leis an nGarda Síochána (Amendment) Bill 2014. The House has discussed a number of scandals recently.
There are a number of measures that the Minister intends to introduce in the forthcoming Garda Síochána (amendment) Bill. The Cabinet agreed the heads of that Bill on 1 July. Is it intended to put that before the committee in the pre-legislative stage or, due to the amount of debate that has already been held on it, is it intended to publish it and encourage the Dáil to start work on it as quickly as possible to try to help rebuild morale within An Garda Síochána and those institutions that have been caught in much of the scandal and debate so far?
The second issue concerns the referendum on Article 41.2.1o, as proposed by the Constitutional Convention which discussed this matter in February 2013. This is to try to make the Constitution gender neutral as regards what is called the "woman in the home" clause. Is it intended, as has been said, to have the proposed referendum dealing with this issue at the same time, next spring, as the Government is hoping to have the referendum on marriage equality?
Comment on this
No date has yet been fixed for that particular referendum. I understand that the heads of the Garda Síochána (amendment) Bill were cleared in July. If the timeline permitted, we would like it to go to a pre-legislative stage but, as the Deputy's question suggests, it is a matter of urgency. If time is available, we would like to enact it in the next session, preferably after a pre-legislative stage.