This is the second amendment of the Principal Act. The Government has decided to ask for these powers because they felt that they are absolutely necessary. As Senators are aware the Bill is a very short Bill. It proposes to delete certain words from the main Act. These words were designed to prevent trial by court-martial of people not subject to military law. That was a safeguard against trying anyone by a military court who was not subject to military law. In this Bill we are proposing to remove those words in Section 2; and in the next section of the Bill, which I had better read, the object is explained:—
"The Government may, by an order under Section 2 of the Principal Act, make provision for the trial, in a summary manner, by commissioned officers of the Defence Forces, of any person alleged to have committed any offence specified in such order, and, in case of the conviction of such person of such offence, for the imposition and the carrying out of the sentence of death, and no appeal shall lie in respect of such conviction or sentence."
As Senators are aware, that Act is operated by means of Orders, and an Order will be made, if this Bill is enacted, providing for the setting up of a military court. That court will be composed of three military officers who will be taken from the five members of the present Special Criminal Court. Three of those members will be appointed to form the new court and there will be no appeal from its findings. In the case of the Special Criminal Court at present, there is an appeal. The new court will also fix its own procedure. The offences which will be triable by that court will be set out in the schedule contained in the Order, but before anyone, even a person guilty of any of these scheduled offences, is triable by the court, a certificate by the Government will be necessary, and if a person is brought before the court and found guilty there will be only one sentence. The court will be used only in the most extreme cases and the only sentence which it can impose will be the sentence of death; and, also, the sentence will be carried out speedily, if the Government does not decide to commute or remit the sentence.
I do not know whether it is necessary to review the circumstances which have induced the Government to ask for these powers. The other House accepted the Bill without debate, but I am not asking the Seanad to do that. It was not without a very great sense of the dangers of the situation—everyone in the country is aware of what the danger is—that the Government decided to ask for these powers. In an emergency like the present, people who go around with guns or fire at officers of State in the execution of their duty, or try to take the law into their own hands, or to upset the Government, will have to be dealt with in a summary and drastic fashion, and the Government is determined that should certain people persist in acting as they have been acting they will have to be dealt with in a drastic way. I do not think it is necessary to speak at length on the Bill but, if the Seanad wishes to debate it, I will try to reply to any points that may be raised.
