Curtailment of the right to silence, longer detention periods and five new offences, including direction of terrorism, are the main features of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill, published yesterday.
The Bill, which also includes provision for the confiscation of property used in subversive activity, is the result of the Government's promised security crack down in the wake of the Omagh bomb. It will be debated in an emergency all-day session of the Dail tomorrow.
The same powers will be introduced by the British Government under the Conspiracy and Criminal Evidence Bill, which will be passed in tandem with the Irish legislation.
The measures have been generally welcomed by the Opposition. However, Democratic Left said it would table an amendment to make the measures conditional on the establishment of a new Human Rights Commission - as promised in the Belfast Agreement - by next March.
The Bill was published as politicians reacted to the overnight IRA statement reiterating its earlier refusal to decommission weapons. In one of the strongest criticisms, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said it was "unthinkable that a politicians associated with a private army that is still defying the State's laws should simultaneously sit at the cabinet table "in this or any other jurisdiction."
But the statement has not caused the same concern in Government circles. While the Taoiseach declined, in line with established policy, to respond to the IRA's remarks, it is understood the statement is being viewed as a response to weekend newspaper speculation, and to what the IRA sees as attempts to lay down preconditions for the entry of its political representatives into the structures set up by the Belfast Agreement.
The Government is also believed to see the more positive features of the statement - including a reference to the return of bodies of relatives - as significant.
However, the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said the IRA had not gone far enough and he wanted a clear statement of the republican movement's intentions. "It must all stop, there must be no equivocation. They have had more than enough time, now they must deliver. It is simply not good enough that the republican movement should refuse to say the war is over and that they are refusing to meet their obligations under the Agreement. I can only look at this (IRA) statement with great disappointment for the people of Northern Ireland who are entitled to peace."
Mr Trimble said that despite political parties with paramilitary links having signed the Belfast Agreement in April, "their organisations and their so-called dissidents" had been responsible for 37 killings and 668 injuries, including 29 "punishment" shootings and 57 beatings. "The Provisional IRA might call its `TUAS' strategy `Tactical Use of Armed Struggle' but for the wider community it was `Totally Unacceptable Armed Struggle'," he said.
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, welcomed the Provisional IRA's demand that the "Real IRA" disband, but said she was concerned that the IRA was still intent on holding on to its arms. The decommissioning of weapons remained an essential part of the Belfast Agreement, she added.