Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 28 Mar 2012

Vol. 214 No. 10

Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Bill 2011 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

This is a Seanad Bill which has been amended by the Dáil. In accordance with Standing Order 113, it is deemed to have passed its First, Second and Third Stages in the Seanad and is placed on the Order Paper for Report Stage. On the question "That the Bill be received for final consideration," the Minister may explain the purpose of the amendments made by the Dáil. This is looked upon as the report of the Dáil amendments to the Seanad. The only matters, therefore, which may be discussed are the amendments made by the Dáil. For Senators' convenience, I have arranged for the printing and circulation of the amendments. Senators may speak only once on Report Stage.

I welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, to the House.

Question proposed: "That the Bill be received for final consideration."

Minister for Health (Deputy James Reilly)

I wish to state how pleased I am the Bill will finish its passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas in the Seanad, where it was initiated. I pay tribute to Senator Ivana Bacik's work on this area. The Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Bill was examined on Committee Stage in the Dáil on 9 February. At that juncture, as Senators might be aware, I introduced two amendments to the Bill. The first was a technical amendment to update section 14 of the Bill following the enactment of the Biological Weapons Act 2011 last July. Section 14 amends the Schedule to the Bail Act 1997. The Schedule lists the offences defined as serious offences. Section 2 of the Bail Act provides for the circumstances in which bail may be refused for such offences. As a result of this amendment, the offences in the Bill related to sections 2 to 4, inclusive, will be added to the bail Schedule.

The second amendment was recommended by the Parliamentary Counsel to make specific provisions for the commencement of the Bill by way of ministerial order. These provisions are desirable to clarify that the Bill is not retrospective and to ensure nobody is charged under the Act until it is published in both official languages.

Senator Ivana Bacik

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for his kind comments on the Bill. It is almost two years since I introduced a Private Members' Bill in the House to prohibit female genital mutilation. I was delighted when the then Government took it up as a Government Bill and the current Government committed to introducing it. I thank the Minister for his personal interest and steering of the Bill through the Seanad and the Dáil. The fact it has taken two years may be due to the fact that a Government fell in the meantime and we entered an IMF programme. There are many reasons for the delay. I am glad the Bill will pass.

I pay tribute to AkiDwA, the organisation represented in the Visitors Gallery, which has done a great deal of work on this issue in Ireland. In respect of the two amendments made in the Dáil, other amendments were mooted and discussed. We also fully discussed them in the Seanad. Perhaps they will be made by way of other legislation in the future.

I was concerned about dual criminality, namely, that the Bill would have allowed prosecution for an offence where a person here took a girl or woman abroad to have female genital mutilation performed in a country where it was not an offence. We received the advice of the Attorney General and were told it would not be possible to remove the provision and that the act must also constitute an offence in the place where it is done. It is a minor point which it would have been good to see addressed by way of amendment. Work is ongoing on the matter.

Amnesty International also raised issues about definitions in the Bill. Those issues were fully debated in the Seanad and the Dáil. The amendments made in the Dáil and which we are agreeing today are technical and I support them.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

Does Senator Burke want to speak to the amendments?

Senator Colm Burke

I have one or two comments. I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for introducing the Bill. I thank Senator Bacik for taking the initiative two years ago. When the matter was last before the House I said I had raised the matter as far back as 1992 with Members of the Oireachtas because there was a huge influx of women from Somalia to England at the time. A medical professor in England raised the issue.

The issue of dual criminality was debated on Committee Stage in the Seanad and an explanation has been given on section 4. It is not possible under Irish legislation, which is different from UK legislation, to bring a prosecution. I welcome the fact we are coming to the final stage of the Bill. It is long overdue. Over 3,000 women living in the country have, unfortunately, gone through the procedure. It is important there is legislation to deal with the issue.

Senator Mary M. White

We had a very far-reaching discussion on the Bill in the previous Seanad. It did first class work and on behalf of my colleagues I fully support it.

Question put and agreed to.

Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."

Minister for Health (Deputy James Reilly)

I am delighted the Bill will be successfully passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas. Ireland will shortly join an ever expanding list of nations which have made a forceful and explicit statement of their unwillingness to tolerate this human rights violation.

We know from talking to NGOs and public health services that summer is the time when girls are most at risk of being victims of female genital mutilation with families travelling to practising countries during the school holidays. Therefore, it is my intention that a commencement order be issued before the summer.

I emphasise that Ireland is in the fortunate position of being able to take a proactive approach to the prevention of female genital mutilation. We have the opportunity and duty to protect women and children from practising communities currently living in Ireland from undergoing this procedure. While legislation alone is never sufficient to tackle the problem of this gravity, the enactment of a Bill specifically prohibiting female genital mutilation and including extraterritorial provisions will be a vital step in preventing female genital mutilation taking hold in this country.

The Bill, when enacted, will act as a powerful deterrent and also potentially empower practising communities living in Ireland to resist pressure from their country of origin to preserve this custom. It is hoped it will enlighten their home communities where the practice still takes place.

I extend my gratitude to Senator Ivana Bacik for raising the issue in the Seanad, encouraging the Government of the day to commence preparation of the Bill and giving the current Bill her continued support during its passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas. I acknowledge the support and encouragement given by AkiDwA.

Senator Ivana Bacik

I thank the Minister for his kind words and all colleagues in the House for their support before and since the last election. It is good to see the Bill receive cross-party support. As Senator White said, it is a sign of what the Seanad can do in terms of initiating legislation on areas which have not been dealt with in the Dáil.

Most importantly, as the Minister said, this legislation should have a powerful deterrent effect and will form part of a public advocacy campaign for those women and girls living in Ireland who are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation. Senator Colm Burke referred to AkiDwA's estimate that more than 3,000 women and girls living in the State have been subjected to FGM. That is an extraordinarily high figure. For the 10,000 women and girls from FGM-practising communities living in this country, our objective in this legislation is to ensure this barbaric practice is not carried out on any of them in the future. The Bill's commencement before the summer is particularly welcome in light of reports that girls are most at risk of being taken abroad during the summer. It is vital that anybody resident in Ireland is aware that taking a girl abroad for the purposes of having FGM performed on her or subjecting her to the procedure in this country is a prosecutable offence. That is the great strength of the legislation.

I take the opportunity to pay tribute once again to all of the organisations, including AkiDwA, which have worked so hard on this issue for many years. I pay particular tribute to the departmental officials sitting behind the Minister for their work in preparing the legislation. I also thank the Minister for his kind words, hard work and personal commitment to this matter.

Question put and agreed to.

Sitting suspended at 2 p.m. and resumed at 2.30 p.m.