The passage of the Bill through the Dáil and Seanad exemplifies the main point we made on all Stages with regard to the package as a whole, that includes the resolution, the Emergency Powers Bill and the Criminal Law Bill. We in the Fianna Fáil Party initially made it plain that we would adopt a constructive and responsible role in regard to this measure, we would seek to have it amended in the Dáil and Seanad and that the contributions would be, on all Stages, on the basis that this Bill in principle is right. The fight against illegal organisations of every hue is a basic and legitimate one as far as the protection of our State is concerned. We maintained at all stages that it could be done best by firming up and strengthening the ordinary law of the land, subject to two reservations in regard to this Bill, a reservation which at all times we had with regard to the incitement section 3 and the reservation which we have just been discussing in regard to section 15. Both these reservations have been met.
The reservation with regard to section 3 has been met very well indeed despite what the Minister states. The section as it now stands does not include any element of curtailment in regard to Press, public or political comment. It did carry that very heavy implication in regard to its original wide drafting. It is now a tightly drafted section that confines incitement to a person who is engaged in the recruitment of people for membership of an unlawful organisation.
Section 15 envisages this important and serious departure of having the Defence Forces in the police area of arrest and search and the limitation of that by not having it part of the permanent legislation is again a welcome amendment. It is an acknowledgment by the Government of the importance of the matter and that it is necessary but only for a limited time and does not form part of the permanent corpus of legislation.
There has been a constructive debate on this Bill in both Houses. Our firm opinion is that this is the only Bill that should have been introduced in the first instance. It does not require any declaration of a national state of emergency, it does not involve any suspension of the Constitution. It is an enlargement and a strengthening of the legitimate forces at the disposal of the State in the interests of the security of our people. For that reason this Bill has been supported in a constructive and responsible way by us. It is our firm view that that is all that is needed and that in practice this is the Bill that is important. It does not involve any hullabaloo about suspending the Constitution, or about invoking Article 28 of the Constitution and blazoning to the world at large that we are in a national state of emergency in that we have to invoke detention without trial or responsibility to any court or other agency in the State.
This is the way the matter should have been met in the first instance. The mind boggles when one considers how easily all of this could have been got through instead of the amount of time we have wasted, the adverse publicity we have achieved as a country and the damage that has been done to the economy. It was all done by reason of the declaration of an emergency and introducing a detention procedure which does enormous damage to basic human liberty and, in my view, will not advance one iota the cause of security. The cause of security is met well by some very excellent procedures set out in this Bill, the powers of search in regard to vehicles and buildings, the powers in regard to certain procedures after arrest with regard to the photographing and finger-printing are all tough drastic powers which I support.