70.— (1) In this Part—

“act” includes omission and a reference to the commission or doing of an act includes a reference to the making of an omission;

F5["Act of 1861" means the Offences against the Person Act 1861;]

F6["criminal organisation" means a structured group, however organised, that has as its main purpose or activity the commission or facilitation of a serious offence;]

“Irish ship” has the meaning it has in section 9 of the Mercantile Marine Act 1955;

“serious offence” means an offence for which a person may be punished by imprisonment for a term of 4 years or more;

F6["structured group" means a group of 3 or more persons, which is not randomly formed for the immediate commission of a single offence, and the involvement in which by 2 or more of those persons is with a view to their acting in concert; for the avoidance of doubt, a structured group may exist notwithstanding the absence of all or any of the following:

(a) formal rules or formal membership, or any formal roles for those involved in the group;

(b) any hierarchical or leadership structure;

(c) continuity of involvement by persons in the group.]

(2) For the purposes of this section facilitation of an offence does not require knowledge of a particular offence the commission of which is facilitated, or that an offence actually be committed.

F7[(3) For the purposes of the references in sections 71(2)(d) and 74(1)(b)(i) to a person’s being ordinarily resident in the State, a person shall be taken to be so resident, on the date of the commission of the offence to which section 71(1) or 74(1), as the case may be, applies, if, for the 12 months immediately preceding that date, the person has his or her principal place of residence in the State.]