Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I thank Senator McDowell for the amendment. It is important to state that the purpose of recording information in relation to a particular stop and search, as provided for in section 13, is to provide a clear and factual account of the incident, which may be relied upon by the person concerned. That needs to be emphasised. Section 13 is for the benefit of the person who is searched. It was not designed as a mechanism for statistical reporting on the operation of Garda powers generally. That is an issue of importance and which should be available, but that is not the purpose of section 13. While this amendment does not amend section 13 directly, it would repurpose information gathered in the course of individual stop-and-search encounters for a broader statistical reporting function, including the publication of demographic information relating to persons stopped and searched. I recognise the importance of accountability and of understanding whether patterns of disproportionality exist. However, I am not convinced that a stop-and-search encounter is the appropriate setting in which to collect sensitive demographic information. Stop and search is intended to be a brief and focused interaction based on reasonable suspicion. Requiring members to collect information relating to race, nationality, Traveller identity or social status at that point raises practical and methodological concerns. It may lengthen what is intended to be a brief interaction and risks increasing tensions at what is already a sensitive moment. There may be more appropriate ways of collecting such information that ensures it is accurate, consistently recorded and capable of meaningful analysis. That is a valid point. If we think of the powers that are contained here for stop and search, they are powers that are going to be exercised based on reasonable suspicion and a decision that a member of An Garda Síochána is going to make immediately and spontaneously. If it is a requirement that information relating to the age, gender, race, nationality and social status of the persons concerned is collated, the search process is going to become inordinately complicated. If a garda is suspicious that somebody has committed or is committing an offence and stops that person and avails of the powers under this legislation, he or she will know that if they stop the person and search them for that reason, he or she will nearly have to go through a questionnaire with the person to find out his or her age, race, gender, nationality and social status. That would grossly undermine the purpose of the legislation and the provision. I agree with Senator McDowell, and I am well aware that this information would be very useful to have in terms of trying to identify people who come in contact with the criminal justice system. However, I do not believe this is the mechanism to do it. This would inflict serious damage on the ability of members of An Garda Síochána to do their job spontaneously, based on decisions they make on the spur of the moment and based on their reasonable suspicion. The Senator should be aware that the Government is currently considering how demographic information may be used appropriately across the criminal justice system, including through the development of a common identifier for individuals engaging with the criminal justice system. That work is ongoing. I believe it provides a more appropriate context in which to consider these complex issues than an amendment to the stop-and-search provisions of the Bill. I also have reservations regarding subsection (1)(c) of the amendment. The fact that a search does not result in the seizure of a relevant article or evidence does not of itself indicate that the search was unjustified or improperly carried out. The statutory test is whether the member has reasonable grounds for suspicion at the time the power is exercised. Stop-and-search powers are preventative as well as investigative and, accordingly, seizure rates viewed in isolation may not necessarily provide a complete picture of the operation of these powers. I also should point out that the programme for Government has committed to introducing a common identifier for individuals who interact with the criminal justice system. This will enable gardaí, courts, prisons and probation records relating to the same individual to be connected, and it will improve the State's ability to assess the operation of criminal justice powers. The Department of justice has indicated that the preferred approach is to use the PPSN as that identifier and it awaits legal advice on that matter. The objective is to allow information to be linked across different parts of the justice system. This will avoid duplication and improve data quality. Similar approaches to record linkage already exist in other areas of the public sector, including health, although their application to the criminal justice system would be different. Importantly, the operation of a common identifier does not depend on the routine recording of ethnicity at the point of stop and search. Where demographic information is lawfully available through other datasets the identifier can facilitate broader statistical analysis without requiring ethnicity to be recorded during every encounter. For those reasons, I think it would be inappropriate to include this amendment so that it would operate in respect of every time a garda invoked powers of stop and search. However, I do recognise that accumulation of this data is important and worthwhile, and there is work being done on the common identifier for that purpose. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:04+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-17