The Presidential Commission has been put on standby to sign the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill into law at Aras an Uachtarain tonight. The Government has put the commission on notice that it is proposing an early signature motion for the Bill to give immediate effect to the new measures to combat paramilitary activity in the wake of the Omagh atrocity. All stages of the Bill will be passed by the Seanad today.
This move for an early signature will enable gardai to use what the Taoiseach described yesterday as "tough" and "draconian" powers against the `Real IRA' from midnight tonight.
The Presidential Commission - comprising the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Liam Hamilton, the Ceann Comhairle, Mr Seamus Pattison, and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Senator Brian Mullooly - signs Bills into law in the absence of the President. Mrs McAleese is in Australia.
The British legislation - the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Bill - was expected to go to the House of Lords later today once it was passed by the House of Commons. Opening the emergency recall of the British parliament to debate the "draconian" anti-terrorist legislation, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, told MPs that "strong and decisive" steps had to be taken to deal with a small, unrepresentative group of terrorists who wanted to use violence to undermine the peace process and the democratic will of the people of the island of Ireland. The Tory leader, Mr William Hague - while not opposing the measures - said one of the "glaring" differences between the antiterrorist legislation in London and Dublin was that the British government had decided against reintroducing the power of internment.
Rejecting criticism from within his own party and from the Opposition that the anti-terrorist legislation had been conceived in haste, Mr Blair insisted that co-operation between London and Dublin was closer than at any time in the past 30 years. The Bill represented "the toughest possible responsible measures against terrorism" but he had made a judgment against using internment. However, clearly indicating that this power remained an option, he added: "We have ruled nothing out."
ail, The Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill had an easy passage through the Dail which was recalled in emergency session for a 13 1/2-hour sitting yesterday. The principle of the Bill was supported, sometimes reluctantly, by the overwhelming majority of TDs.
Just five TDs opposed the legislation when it passed all stages last night. They were the two Green Party TDs, Mr John Gormley and Mr Trevor Sargent, Mr Caomhghin O Caolain (Sinn Fein), Mr Tony Gregory (Independent) and Mr Joe Higgins (Independent Socialist).
The most surprising intervention came from the former Fine Gael leader, Mr Alan Dukes, who said the Bill was bad legislation and did not accord with the central objective of the rule of law. "It creates a very clear danger that procedures will be put in place similar in many ways to procedures against which we vehemently protested in the past when we saw their effects and their results in Northern Ireland and in the rest of the UK", he said.
Asked later why he did not seek to vote against the Bill, Mr Dukes said that Fine Gael's position at yesterday's front bench meeting was that if the Government felt on security advice that it needed the new powers in the Bill, the party would support it.
In his opening statement on the Omagh bombing, the Taoiseach said the `Real IRA' could not hope to take on the people of Ireland and win. All remaining groups were about to learn a lesson that would teach them to respect the strength of Irish democracy.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, proposed further amendments yesterday to meet some of the civil libertarian reservations about the Bill. He brought forward the date on which the Bill would fall to be reviewed by six months to June 30th, 2000.