I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
I am pleased to present the Bill to the House. Its enactment will enable Ireland to accede to the Council of Europe agreement on illicit traffic by sea implementing article 17 of the United Nations Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, done at Strasbourg on 31 January 1995.
The international community has provided a framework for dealing with certain drug trafficking offences at sea, which is contained in the United Nations Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, more commonly known as the Vienna convention, adopted by the UN in Vienna in December 1988. Ireland has given effect to the provisions of the convention by the enactment of Part V of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994, which led to the ratification of the convention by Ireland on 3 September 1996.
Arising from Ireland's obligations under the UN convention, it is an offence under domestic law for a person on an Irish ship or a ship registered in a convention state or a ship not registered in any state or territory, no matter where the ship may be, either to be in the possession of controlled drugs or involved in the carrying of such drugs, knowing or having reasonable grounds to suspect that the drugs are to be imported or exported contrary to Irish law or a corresponding law of any other country. At present, the Irish authorities may stop, board and detain a ship registered in a convention state where such drug trafficking is suspected provided that convention state agrees.
The other convention states have enacted similar laws so that there is a shared jurisdiction among all convention states. However, the UN convention is silent on the consequences of shared jurisdiction, in particular on which state ought to prosecute in such circumstances, although the terms of the convention recognise the need for further improvements of these provisions by providing in article 17 for regional agreements to enhance effectiveness in this area such as is contained in the Council of Europe agreement.
The purpose of the agreement is to build on the provisions of the UN convention and deal with the issue of shared jurisdiction by making provision for the concept of preferential jurisdiction. This in effect gives a flag state the right to seek to exercise jurisdiction concerning any drug trafficking offence committed on board its vessel on the high seas in priority to the jurisdiction of another convention state. The agreement makes provision for the procedure to be followed by the Council of Europe member states in applying the concept of preferential jurisdiction between them.
As is clear from the explanatory report published with the agreement, the experts involved in drafting the agreement considered that, in practice, the normal case would be that the relevant offence or offences would be prosecuted by the authorities of the intervening state. However, there might occasionally, for reasons of policy or on an ad hoc basis, be situations where a flag state might wish to prosecute the suspect and the agreement sets out in detail the rules to deal with such a situation. The Bill gives a statutory basis to the concept of preferential jurisdiction and makes provision for the legislative mechanism to give effect to it.
If, for example, a foreign ship on the high seas off the coast of Ireland was suspected of carrying drugs, the authorities of the flag state could under the convention request Ireland or, alternatively, Ireland could seek permission from the flag state to stop, board and search the ship. If evidence of drugs was found, the ship could be taken to and detained in an Irish port and the crew arrested. The crew would, however, be guilty of a drug trafficking offence not only under Irish law but also under the law of the flag state.
The Council of Europe agreement seeks to establish an agreed method of dealing with such a situation by giving the flag state preferential jurisdiction. In this example the flag state would have the right to insist on prosecuting the crew and could, therefore, under the agreement require the crew, the ship and any evidence found on board the ship to be surrendered to it by the Irish authorities. Alternatively, under an unusual requirement of the agreement, to which I shall return later, the flag state could simply require the release of the ship and the crew.