Senator Robbie Gallagher: I move:

That, in accordance with Standing Order 201(2), in relation to the Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, it be an instruction to the Committee of the whole Seanad, to which the Bill may be recommitted in respect of certain amendments, that it has the power to make amendments to the Bill which are not relevant to the subject matter of the Bill, for the purposes of:

(i) Amending section 10 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1984 to provide a statutory basis for the admissibility, in proceedings under section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, of certificate evidence relating to the results of applicable drug tests carried out by members of An Garda Síochána;

(ii) Repealing Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024 consequential on the provisions of section 23 of the Bill and of the reformulated section which it is proposed, by way of a Government amendment, to substitute for the said section 23;

(iii) Providing, on an enabling basis, for the electronic transmission of documents in certain court proceedings and for electronic statements of truth in such proceedings;

(iv) Providing for the designation of intra EU flights within Ireland's Passenger Name Record (“PNR”) Data regime, the transposition of EU Directive 2016/381 into primary law and revocation of the European Union (Passenger Name Record Data) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 177 of 2018) and the designation of an independent authority to approve the disclosure of PNR data held by the Irish Passenger Information Unit;(v) Amending the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 consequential on the aforementioned amendments relating to the use of electronic technology in certain court proceedings and to delete two inoperable provisions of that Act which provide that a court may specify the technology to be used in particular remote hearings; and

(vi) Amending the Criminal Justice (Perjury and Related Offences) Act 2021 consequential on the amendments relating to the use of technology in certain court proceedings;

and to change the long title to reflect the content of the Bill; and to make other consequential amendments required to take account of such amendments.

Jim O'Callaghan, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: I welcome the opportunity to discuss certain Government amendments to the Bill, which I have submitted ahead of Report Stage this afternoon. I look forward to hearing from Members. I am going to be brief in my opening remarks and talk about the substantive amendments.

The first substantive amendment is to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1984 to provide a statutory basis for the admissibility in proceedings of certificate evidence of the results of applicable drug tests carried out by Garda members. Gardaí have for many years been conducting presumptive drug testing on cannabis and cocaine. These tests are highly accurate. However, some District Courts accept them and others do not because of the absence of a statutory basis. What I am seeking to do here is to give them a statutory basis.

The next such amendment is to repeal section 14 of the sex offences Act 2024. That is the one that deals with character evidence. If you want to give a character reference or evidence in respect of somebody convicted of a sexual offence, you have to do it on oath or by affidavit. I am changing that so that it applies not just to sex offences but also to every indictable offence of which a person is convicted.