Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank both Senators for their amendments and contributions. Both in effect wish to make it a criminal offence if a member of An Garda Síochána or Garda personnel does not carry out biometric analysis in accordance with Part 6A or with the code of practice. That would be draconian. There could be many examples where a garda inadvertently fails to follow the code of practice or makes a mistake, as we all do in our professional lives, when it comes to the code of practice. If that happened under the amendments put in here, there would be a prosecution of the garda for the commission of a criminal offence. That is excessive. Section 43E at present provides sufficiently for where prosecutions should take place. In the case of falsification, concealment or destruction of information or permitting the falsification, that should be an offence. There is a range of other offences as well that will apply in terms of somebody misusing or deliberately using for other purposes information that was procured from it. That proposal that any breach of the code of practice or if you simply did not follow all the rules in respect of what is set out in Part 6A, that can happen inadvertently. People make mistakes. When people make mistakes, it should not necessarily be the case that they be prosecuted.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10