NI paramilitary threat ‘remains substantial’, Dáil told

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has asked the Dáil to renew “necessary” legislation to tackle terrorism and organised crime, warning that “the threat” from paramilitaries in Northern Ireland “remains substantial”.

“This means that an attack is likely,” the Minister said.

“Terrorism remains a key threat to the EU’s internal security,” she said, and there has been “a deterioration in the international security landscape in recent times”.

One of the pieces of legislation the minister wants to renew is a 1998 amendment to one of the Offences Against the State Acts. These were drafted between 1939 and 1998 with some still remaining in force.

Last year, an independent expert review recommended that the Offences Against the State Acts be abolished “in their entirety”.

While the six-person review group agreed on the need to repeal the legislation, a majority of four of its members recommended that a new non-jury court replace the Special Criminal Court, something which the two remaining members opposed.

After publishing the group’s report in June 2023, Minister McEntee decided to keep the Special Criminal Court in operation for another year while its replacement is considered. Today, she sought to extend its operation for another year.

She told the Dáil that the court is “only used only in very limited circumstances”, with 15 people having been sent forward for trial on 35 charges last year.

An Garda Síochána support its continuation, she said, and it is her “strong view” that this be done.

“We will not oppose the renewal, but it is clear this is a massive opportunity missed,” Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on justice Pa Daly said.

For many years, the party had opposed the operation of the Special Criminal Court, a position it has since changed.

Deputy Daly accused the minister of “failing to bring forward the sorts of reforms and improvements demanded by the expert panel”, and said that, instead, “she has sat on her hands”.

Minister McEntee said that she will deliver “a considered response” to the report from the expert group.