Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17 ============================================================ Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland The point I am making is that the PPS number would only come into play where someone was convicted and then there is the common identifier that Michael McDowell of such and such a number was convicted of assault in Dundalk District Court and the same person was commonly identified, by that number, as having engaged in theft somewhere else. It would be very clear, and should be clear, to the Garda that a repeat offender - a person who was convicted of a number of things in different places - is identified clearly as being the same person and not just somebody with a similar name. That is not what this amendment set out to achieve. It is not setting out to achieve accuracy as to who is or who is not the subject of a number of encounters with the criminal justice system, which could only happen in the context of a conviction unless the Minister is going to introduce some system whereby people have to, on demand, when they are being searched, yield up their PPS number, which is nonsense in my view. This comes down, in the end, to the wilful decision, I think, emanating from An Garda Síochána that they do not want in the Republic of Ireland the same obligation to provide material or to record material, which is required under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act in the UK and equality legislation to be the subject of, number one, a record, and number two, accountability, in order to ensure that the law is fairly and impartially applied between different sections of society based on their status. I do not believe, and I do not think anybody thinks, that the forces of law and order north of the Border or on the island of Britain are impeded by making the kind of record which shows conclusively whether the use of stop and search powers is used disproportionately in respect of some groups in society. I reiterate my point that on any view of effective policing, it is quite possible that particular stop and search incidents are going to weigh more heavily on people in certain categories. I have no doubt but that that will be the case and it does not necessarily suggest racism, ageism, misogyny or whatever words are thrown about in such circumstances. I have no doubt that statistical homogeneity is never going to be achieved in the way in which these powers are actually applied by any effective police force. What I do say is that it is important, if we are introducing the stop and search powers of this kind, that we do what I believe the European Convention on Human Rights, ECHR, would require of any responsible member state and what is done right across the various constituent parts of the United Kingdom to at least make it clear what age groups are being more or less affected by the deployment of these powers. I believe there is no decent answer to a similar requirement existing in Irish police procedure. The Minister's reference to the programme for Government and the plan to have a common identifier for people who are in contact with An Garda Síochána based on the PPS number have nothing to do with the proposition as to what kind of person is likely to be stopped at random on a street in Dublin. There is no connection between the two, and we will never connect people up with a common identifier unless they are convicted of an offence and unless there has been some court process. Nobody will be in a position, and gardaí are not entitled, to ask for a common identifier of people whom they search. If such a power were to be conferred on the Garda, the accusations of Big Brother would be enormous. It would be said that the Garda was effectively keeping an eye on people whom gardaí randomly stopped and searched and was able to connect them by a common identifier with other brushes they may or may not have had with the criminal justice system. I regret to say I am not persuaded. On this occasion the Minister has made it very clear he does not intend putting into effect in Ireland what is required in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Therefore, in the circumstances, I have to press the amendment. --- 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