Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

Amendment No. 8 is sufficiently covered by the provisions of the Bill already. The Bill significantly strengthens the protection of journalistic privilege. It introduces a judicially supervised process governing potentially privileged material. Applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis with the court empowered to seek additional information and to grant, limit or refuse access depending on what is necessary. I believe very categorically that the statutory provision in place will ensure that if a member of the Garda, the Irish police force, is going to the District Court looking for a search warrant, and if the garda is aware that this may involve privileged material, there is a statutory obligation on the garda to bring that to the attention of the court. The court will very much take that into account. Even if the search warrant is granted and information is then procured by An Garda Síochána, they cannot look at it until such time as an order is made. If an application is made by the affected party claiming that this involves privilege there is a process for it to be determined before a High Court judge. It is very thorough.

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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