Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister did not answer the question on this. Under current legislation, there are safeguards in place that would prevent this from happening but under this proposed legislation there is nothing to safeguard a person's reputation and liberty if they fall victim to such a cloning scam. It is very possible, as the Minister knows. How would it be possibly proven in a court of law that a person did not make these hate speech statements when AI can do that? Of course it can do it. Will the absence of any trace of audio file on the person's phone, laptop or computer be enough to convince a judge that he or she did not utter these hate speech statements? This legislation is leaving it wide open for that to happen.

Rushing this Bill through the House at breakneck speed ahead of an election without an opportunity to tease out its consequences may well have dire consequences down the road that could result in innocent people being convicted of crimes they did not commit. That is my very real worry. The Minister said earlier that it was the duty of Government to ensure people were protected from crime. Every hour of every day people are afraid. I just got two WhatsApp messages since we started this debatel about a strange van circulating in my own parish at the moment. People are terrified. Tonight, in my area from Araglen to Boherlahan and from Clonmel, Fethard, Carrick-on-Suir and the whole vast area of Cashel, there might not be two gardaí on duty. It is disgraceful that the Minister would treat the gardaí like that first of all, putting their lives in danger, but it is a bigger disgrace that there is nobody to protect the citizens. We are all here and we want it to be a lovely welcoming place for everybody but we cannot protect our own citizens let alone the citizens coming in. Then when we have situations like the siege of Dundrum in Tipperary, where the superintendent who was there that morning gave instructions that it came down from the Minister for Justice and the Minister for integration that these bus loads were going to be pushed in there. Peaceful people and many members of the Minister's own party were there. These are decent people who did not lift a finger to anyone. There was plenty of intelligence in An Garda Síochána to know there was not going to be any trouble in Dundrum. It is an excellent place with excellent people and they brought a force of 200 gardaí, including the dog squad, into a peaceful village to force a bus load of people in. When it turned out that one of the unfortunate ladies was 39 weeks pregnant, had been whisked out of her place here in Dublin and brought down there with no records and no scans from hospitals, the people who were at the gates - Andrea Crowe for one, and others such as my own daughter - pushed and got her back to Dublin. They organised Gianna Care and others to look after the woman.

That is what I would expect from the people of Dundrum. They wanted to look after those people. However, the Government abused them by moving them around the country at short notice. The children were in school here and they had uniforms bought for them and everything else. These unfortunate people were treated like cattle. They got 12 hours' notice they were going and were not told where they were going. Is that the modern Ireland the Minister is talking about and with that kind of a force of gardaí? It shows contempt for the people of Tipperary who support An Garda Síochána day in, day out. At the same time there was a robbery in the village of Cullen, a rural area, and they had to wait three hours for a garda. There were 300 of them around with vans, paddy wagons and tow-trucks in a massive operation that cost over €30,000 that day. There was no bother finding money for that. This was a show of strength for the Minister and her Commissioner who will not support the gardaí. I will repeat what I said earlier that 98.9% have no faith in the Garda Commissioner. The Minister chose to side with the Commissioner rather than the gardaí.

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