Bill to outlaw sex for rent and give gardaí power to remove protesters' masks approved by government
The General Scheme of the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 will now be referred to the Justice Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny, the Department of Justice said.
Once the Committee's report is received by Cabinet, 'work on finalising the Bill will be prioritised', the Department said in a statement.
Sex for rent
The proposed legislation would introduce two specific criminal offences concerning sex for rent.
Those offences will be offering accommodation in exchange for sex and the advertising of accommodation in exchange for sex. There will be no need for complainants to prove that sexual activity has occurred and the proposed penalty is a fine of €5,000.
The Department said the provisions would cover both rental agreements between landlords and tenants, and 'rent-a-room' situations.
'Any attempt by accommodation providers to exploit their position and prey on vulnerable individuals through these arrangements is completely unacceptable,' O'Callaghan said in a statement.
He described such arrangements as 'an appalling abuse of power by unscrupulous individuals'.
While O'Callaghan said this was 'a complex issue to legislate for' he insisted that car had been taken 'to ensure that the offences are clear, precise and limited in scope'.
'I am satisfied the provisions are workable and constitutionally sound, and do not create any unintended consequences such as inadvertently criminalising consensual relationships.'
Counsellor notes
Another element of the proposed legislation is an amendment that would affect the disclosure of counselling notes in cases involving sexual assault.
As it stands, notes from the counselling sessions of survivors of sexual assault can be released to the defence in pre-trial disclosures if the court deems the content materially relevant to the case.
'I am fully aware of the distress and re-victimisation that disclosure of counselling records can have on complainants in sexual assault trials,' O'Callaghan said.
Advertisement
He said that reforms to the law made in 2017 have 'not operated as intended'.
'I am therefore proposing to amend the existing legislation by requiring that a disclosure hearing takes place in all cases and removing the provision that allows for this step to be waived,' O'Callaghan said.
He also noted that complainants have described feeling compelled to waive disclosure hearings because 'they don't want to risk a successful prosecution or delay a trial'.
'This amendment will ensure that the original intention of the legislation will apply,' said O'Callaghan.
'However, I am continuing to look at how we might further limit release of these records as I recognise that disclosure hearings can be extremely difficult for complainants.'
Masks
The Bill will also give gardaí the power to require people to remove a face covering when they reasonably expect that it is being worn in order to intimidate or conceal a person's identity when intending to commit a crime.
The Department said this will serve as 'a deterrent against disorderly conduct and intimidation at protests and in other public places'.
The proposal has been criticised by People Before Profit and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
TD Paul Murphy called it a 'worrying threat to the right of people to privacy, and their right to protest'.
'While people have the right to protest and that right must be respected, it is subject to the rights of others in our community,' O'Callaghan said, adding that striking that balance was a complex task for gardaí.
'It has become apparent that some protesters are covering their faces in an obvious effort to alarm and intimidate individuals in various scenarios or to avoid detection when committing a criminal offence.'
Murphy said: 'We are seeing a general push against the right to privacy and the right to protest in the EU and elsewhere.
Murphy said this was 'Black Mirror type stuff', and pointed to 'the German state criminalising protesters for speaking as Gaeilge', and the growing use of technology like AI and facial recognition to monitor ordinary citizens engaging in demonstrations.
'Protesters are not criminals and should not be treated as such. They have the right to wear a protective mask, scarf, religious face covering or sun-glasses without facing the threat of criminal charges.'
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Learn More
Support The Journal
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
19 hours ago
- Irish Times
An answer to Ireland's housing crisis is right behind us
When you are in a crisis, the choice is never between good and bad – it's always between bad and worse. Ireland has a housing crisis . We have far too many people and not enough homes for them. We can't seem to build quickly enough in the right areas at the right price. All the while, rising rent and house prices are prompting tens of thousands of young educated Irish people to emigrate . As argued here last month , our immigration policy is giving out too many work visas relative to the economy's ability to house these new migrants. There is too little supply and too much demand. The solution must include a reduction in immigration rates and a simultaneous increase in home building. In the short term, all bottlenecks to building should be removed while the number of people coming into the country needs to be capped, which means identifying a number for sustainable migration and sticking to it for a specific time period. READ MORE Facing a crisis resolutely is often described as the 'Dunkirk strategy', where you achieve your goals however you can, galvanising all your resources. At Dunkirk, rather than waiting for navy frigates to evacuate the stranded British army, the war cabinet commandeered every boat possible – fishing boats, yachts, pleasure boats, the lot. The objective in the crisis was: do whatever necessary. One housing-related idea under discussion is the notion that Irish people should be allowed (or even encouraged) to build small homes in their back gardens for the family to alleviate the pressure on the rental market. As long as the homes are within a specific size and meet some specific guidelines, families should be allowed to do what they want, right? [ We need to confront the reality that the housing shortage can't be solved Opens in new window ] This seems pretty sensible and, while it is hardly a universal solution, as an incremental move it's a start. The back gardens of many homes are potentially an amazing resource. In place of Nimbyism, living in the garden could be the start of a Yimbyism movement: yes in my back yard. Although some have voiced opposition, the international evidence is overwhelmingly positive. Allowing people to build in their back garden creates reasonably priced homes in the right areas. In North America, removing planning barriers in recent years has unleashed huge growth in small garden homes. For example, in three years Seattle tripled its permits to build what they call secondary dwelling units. In California, permits surged by 15,334 per cent. In Vancouver today, roughly 35 per cent of single-family lots host a laneway or secondary suite. These are families taking the housing crisis into their own hands and building in their gardens. Why would you stop them? In the Irish context, how big might this garden housing opportunity be? The Dublin City Council area contains about 3,305 hectares of private gardens. To give you a sense of how big this is, consider 8,262 Croke Parks. Now you get the picture. These are already residential-zoned, serviced plots located in prime, established urban areas. By contrast, empty brownfield sites are scarce in Ireland because even though dereliction is rife, there simply isn't enough derelict land to meet targets. If we want to avoid more sprawl and longer commutes, new greenfield development should be curtailed. Ireland's national policy is already aiming for 40 per cent of new housing to be built in existing urban areas. Gardens are already inside the cities. Ireland has hundreds of thousands of square metres of ready-to-go residential land in gardens. A think tank called Progress Ireland has run some of the numbers to see how many small homes could be built in existing gardens. Obviously gardens without back lanes or side entrances aren't suitable, and they must be big enough to accommodate a basic studio or one-bedroom modular home. On top of these physical constraints, to be viable building in the garden must be cheaper than renting locally. The report concludes that, across the country, about 18 per cent of existing gardens are suitable. That's about 348,000 viable sites. [ Rise in young people's mental health difficulties partly due to housing insecurity, says charity Opens in new window ] In a crisis, surely it is worth green-lighting such an opportunity. At the very least, planning restrictions should be eased so that neighbours can't object on the basis of density or views or whatever Nimby nonsense is invented as grounds for objections. A serious problem for Ireland is that our population isn't dense enough. We have only 73 people per square kilometre, compared with 279 in the UK. Four times the density means that public infrastructure might be as much as four times more effective. The more we build outwards, the worse our infrastructure will be and the more it will cost. Speaking of cost, a basic two-bedroom log cabin for a garden is estimated to run about €30,000–€42,000, making it an attractive solution for intergenerational living or as a 'starter' home for a young person on family land. Contrast this with the cost of a two-bed apartment in Ireland or a similar starter home on a new estate. This sort of microdevelopment needs to be part of an overall housing plan. It can't hurt. I understand many people will regard commandeering back gardens as a gimmick, putting people in a glorified shed or cabin rather than fixing the housing problem permanently. I get it. But anything that reduces pressure on the rental market must be considered for the short term. Having sons and daughters living in their own place beside their parents, or vice versa, might also have dramatic family positives (although it might also have the opposite effect in some cases). The aim is to reduce the acute pressure. Many younger people might love to live, for a while at least, in the place where they grew up, with a modicum of independence and their own front door. Why should the State, which has failed to provide proper housing, object to this stopgap? Last year Ireland built only 33,500 houses, a pathetic number. Even if we were to build 50,000 a year, which would be quite an achievement, we are a long way from bringing supply and demand into alignment. On the demand side, migration must be reduced if we are to have any hope of stabilising prices. On the supply side, a Dunkirk emergency strategy must be accepted, however unpalatable to some.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: We need more gardaí but facial recognition could help the force do its job
Many claims are made to support the widespread introduction of facial recognition technology (FRT). Mostly they relate to policing and the efficiencies which could be gained in an era when An Garda Síochána continuously finds it difficult to fill vacancies. This was underlined this week when it was revealed that 7,000 fewer drug searches were carried out last year, compared to 2022. They dropped 15% for the entire country, but by as much as 43% in Clare/Tipperary and 34% in Cork City. If this is a consequence, as officers maintain, of fewer gardaí 'on the streets' then what will happen when almost 1,900 members of the force become eligible to retire over the next three years? There is an inexorable logic to future demands that this shortfall be managed, in part, by more widespread use of technology. Unfortunately, that runs directly into mounting worries about civil liberties and the rights of ordinary citizens to pursue legitimate interests free from unjustified official intrusion and oversight. Politicians recognise the dangers of being portrayed as agents of some form of deep state. They have been slow to introduce body cameras for guards and our government is taking baby steps on plans for incorporation of real-time facial recognition technology into next gen surveillance techniques. Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan has said a bill currently before the Dáil will not provide for the use of real-time FRT but its future deployment has not been ruled out in cases of terrorism, national security, and missing persons 'with strict safeguards'. This would have to be considered for inclusion in any subsequent bill. Live facial recognition technology uses video footage of crowds passing a camera and automatically compares their images against a police database of people on a 'watch list'. Senior officers will, no doubt, be keenly observing what happens next door. The UK, along with Germany, is already Europe's leading exponent of CCTV with more than 5m units in position compared to the few thousand we have in Ireland. Now the Metropolitan Police, the UK's largest force, is set to double its use of live facial recognition to up to 10 deployments every week. It justifies the move as part of a restructuring to offset the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff in a budgetary crisis. Its new tactics will be implemented at the sometimes tempestuous Notting Hill Carnival at the end of this month. The Met's commissioner, Mark Rowley, says: It's a fantastic piece of technology. It's very responsibly used, and that's why most of the public support it. The problem for civil liberties campaigners resides in the last line of that quote. The majority of citizens don't like society being under-policed, something which they equate with criminals being given an easy run and producing the kind of gloomy results contained in the recent drug search statistics. Last year, British police scanned some 4.7m faces using the technology, more than double the figure for 2023. Most senior officers believe the cameras are on their way to becoming 'commonplace' in England and Wales. The challenge for our society is to ensure the law on FRT, and any protection it contains for the rights of citizens, does not get outpaced by its use. Crimefighting success in nearby jurisdictions is likely to increase clamour for its deployment. When happiness is the best revenge The tariffs announced on Friday for 69 trading partners of the US — ranging from 41% for Syria to 10% for the UK — have all the hallmarks of a running joke. But a joke of the worst possible kind, one which has gone on too long. Shoppers enjoying a hula hoop demonstration in Cork in the run-up to Christmas, 1958. Joan Anderson, who sparked the hula hoop craze in the US died this week aged 101. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive It would be easy to complain this morning but, to draw a lesson from Monty Python, it is better to look on the bright side of life. And there is plenty there to lighten our load. American scientists have just confirmed that the world's longest streak of lightning — a 'megaflash' — covered more than 500 miles, from Texas to the outskirts of Kansas City. Meanwhile a holidaymaker rockpooling on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has rediscovered a species of jellyfish, Depastrum cyathiforme, thought to have been extinct for 50 years. If both these reports carry a whiff of what used to known in newsrooms as 'the silly season', then we commend the heartwarming story following the death of the Australian woman who brought the concept of the hula hoop to the US, igniting one of the biggest crazes of the previous century. Joan Anderson, who died this week aged 101, failed to gain financially from a fad which had hundreds of millions of participants. She filed a lawsuit against the toy company which exploited her idea and eventually settled for minor compensation. But, in a message we might all usefully reflect on in 2025, Joan said: 'Why be angry with something you can't change? The world isn't fair but life goes on. 'I had a great life. My husband lived to be 87 and we had 63 wonderful years together. 'Happiness is the best revenge.' What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Last supper for Gregg Wallace 'Who's the Daddy?' It's just the sort of slang phrase you can imagine being used by Gregg Wallace at the height of his laddish popularity as a TV personality, something that viewers will be able to experience for conceivably the last time starting next week. Allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and language were made against presenter Gregg Wallace after the forthcoming MasterChef series was recorded. Picture: BBC/PA It's certainly an adequate description of MasterChef, which in its various iterations, can be viewed as the durable forerunner of international format programming. From its launch in 1990, under the rather different stewardship of Loyd Grossman, it has been mimicked by a number of hugely successful shows all utilising a comfortingly predictable participatory and voyeuristic formula. What is common to all these programmes is that they contain lesser or greater amounts of humiliation for the contestants and the occasional soupcon of cruelty, presumably just enough to meet modern tastes without, showrunners hope, tipping over into something darker. The global MasterChef franchise has been better than most at attracting interest, watched by hundreds of millions worldwide. The upcoming series, filmed last year and which will begin on BBC One next Wednesday, was produced before allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and language were made against Wallace. His co-presenter John Torode was accused of making a racist comment — euphemistically known as 'the N-word' — at a social gathering more than five years ago. He says he has no recollection of doing so. After an independent review by the Lewis Silkin legal practice, which also has offices in Dublin and Belfast, Torode was told that his contract with the BBC would not be renewed. The Silkin team upheld 45 allegations against Wallace including claims of inappropriate sexual language and one incident of unwelcome physical contact over a 17-year-timeline. The decision on whether to air this latest series featuring the two sacked presenters has been fraught. It has been on hold since the accusations emerged with the BBC deciding it should go ahead after most of the contestants supported its broadcast. John Torode and Gregg Wallace. The decision on whether to air the already-recorded latest series of MasterChef featuring the two sacked presenters has been fraught. File picture: PA/BBC/Shine TV Most, but not all. One participant wanted the whole show canned, and has now been edited out of the final version. 'For me, it's about the enabling environment,' she said. 'It's that complicity. Those individual powerful men do not [act] in isolation. There is an enabling environment, turning a blind eye ... it's about years of these institutions not being accountable.' Sincere though these expressions are, based on the evidence this seems extreme. All potential viewers have the sanction of the on-off button. How many use it is likely to determine whether we get to see the Celebrity MasterChef series and the Christmas special. Wallace looks to be a serious loser. His access to international networks is being replaced by his reported plan to launch a private chat room (€13.50 a month) for men over the age of 50. 'Real talk, real support — hosted by Gregg Wallace. Fitness, food, lifestyle, laughs. Sign up below and pop in to say hello' — says the blurb. It sounds a more measured approach than one of his responses to complaints made against him. On that occasion, ignoring the dictum that, when you are in a hole, you should stop digging, he hit out at 'middle class women of a certain age'. Perhaps this is a lesson learned. Perhaps chippy masculinity will come back into fashion. But that is probably not the way to bet.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
US tariffs will mean 70,000 fewer jobs created in Irish economy, Department of Finance warns
Up to 70,000 fewer jobs will be created in the Irish economy over the next five years as a result of US tariffs, the Department of Finance has warned business groups. At a meeting of the Government's trade forum this morning, department officials gave their preliminary analysis of what impact the new 15 per cent tariff on EU exports into the US would have on the Irish economy. They warned it would reduce economic activity here by roughly 1.5 per cent over a five-year timeline against a baseline of no tariffs while reducing employment growth by 2 per cent, which equates to 56,000-70,000 fewer jobs being created. Officials cautioned that much of the detail in the deal brokered this week between Brussels and Washington, including possible carve outs for certain sectors, had yet to be ironed out and therefore their forecasts might change. READ MORE Speaking after the meeting Ibec's Danny McCoy said he hoped 'we might be entering into a period of stability' following the agreement. 'At least we have something we didn't have before which is cetaintly helpful for business,' Mr McCoy said. He highlighted the tariff differential between Northern Ireland and the Republic (10 per cent versus 15 per cent) as a potential concern while noting that both sides needed to work together 'not to negate the North's advantage' but to ensure it operates correctly. Chambers Ireland chief executive Ian Talbot said the Government needed to focus on geography as well as sectors. 'Our successful clustering model could result in certain parts of the country being disproportionately exposed to one or two sectors,' he said. 'And there remains the question about whether the US may move the goalposts again in the coming months or years,' Mr Talbot said. He said the forum also discussed the importance of opening up new markets with opportunities in Canada, Mercosur and India discussed. US president Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosts the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The order set tariff rates, ranging from 10 to 41 per cent, for 67 countries, Taiwan and the European Union. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 per cent from the duties Mr Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. The European Union has agreed a 15 per cent tariff on exports to the US. Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said he was disappointed after Mr Trump signed an executive order to raise tariffs on Canadian goods to 35 per cent from 25 per cent on products outside the scope of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The move, which Washington linked in part to what it said was Canada's failure to stop fentanyl smuggling, is the latest salvo in Mr Trump's months-long tariff war initiated soon after taking power. [ What does 15% tariff regime mean for Europe and Ireland? Opens in new window ] US duties and tariffs will heavily affect lumber, steel, aluminium, and automobiles, Mr Carney said in a post on X, vowing action to protect Canadian jobs, buy its goods, invest in industrial competitiveness and diversify export markets. [ Why did the EU sign a tariff deal overwhelmingly favourable to the US? Opens in new window ] To justify its step, the US has cited the cross-border flow of fentanyl, even though Canada accounts for just 1 per cent of US fentanyl imports and has been working intensively to further reduce the volumes, Mr Carney added. South Korea's trade ministry said on Friday that exports of copper products to the United States were expected to decline due to a 50 per cent tariff on copper announced by Mr Trump. The ministry said in a statement that it would actively respond to minimise the impact by diversifying copper exports. The US set a 19 per cent levy on imports from Thailand and Cambodia, lower than the 36 per cent they originally faced, after Mr Trump threatened to block trade deals with them unless they ended a deadly border clash. Malaysia, which helped broker the ceasefire, was also set at 19 per cent. That's on par with previously announced rates for Southeast Asian neighbours Indonesia and the Philippines. The US is the largest export markets for both Cambodia and Thailand. Meanwhile, Mr Trump is setting a 20 per cent duty on Taiwan's exports to the US, one of a number of so-called reciprocal tariffs he imposed Thursday, hours before a deadline for nations to reach trade frameworks with his administration. The figure was set in an executive order that Mr Trump signed, with the levy set to take effect on Friday. The number is lower than the 32 per cent tariff Mr Trump had first announced for Taiwan in April, before he paused his slate of levies to allow time for negotiations. Taiwan's rate compares to a 15 per cent levy that neighbouring Japan and South Korea settled on with the US. – additional reporting by Agencies
