Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland

The Minister of State had suggested that the PPS identifiers could be of relevance in that the CSO would have access to PULSE data, try to match that to name, address and date of birth, and then produce some survey. I do not believe the CSO has the right to do that. I very much doubt that it would go through all of PULSE working out which people had been stopped and searched and then try to draw this data itself. The more obvious thing to do is for the Minister to say to the Garda that it would keep this data. The Garda has a computer and a system with a drop-down box, so it should do it and then we would find out the result. Instead, the suggestion has been made that somehow the CSO would be given access to PULSE records of every individual in the country who was stopped, searched and found to be clean and totally innocent, and from that some CSO report would come.

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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