Criminal Justice (International Cooperation on Electronic Evidence and Other Matters) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Conor Murphy (SF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the EU e-evidence package and this legislation, which seeks to transpose the package into Irish law. We support the basic tenets of the Bill, which seeks to make cross-border requests for electronic evidence such as social media posts and emails more efficient. We live in an increasingly globalised and digitalised world. As we know on this island, crime does not respect borders. I understand the necessity of this type of legislation. I support the sharing of e-evidence in the appropriate circumstances, while also respecting people's right to privacy.
There is a number of difficulties with this Bill, one of which has arisen from the manner in which the Minister is seeking to enact it. The rushed nature of the Bill's passage through the Dáil leaves a lot to be desired. The deadline for Dáil Committee Stage amendments was prior to the Bill's Second Stage Reading. That is fairly bad practice and completely undermines the democratic scrutiny function of the Oireachtas. The Minister stated that the date for transposition was 18 February. Despite the significant efforts of his officials and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, the deadline could not be met. We are not sure what the exact fault or hold-up was in that regard. We are now faced with the Bill be steamrolled through the Oireachtas in order to try and meet the relevant deadlines. Some explanation of that would be welcome.
There are a number of other concerns. It is significant legislation. The Department of justice has acknowledged that there is no existing criminal justice body equipped to deal with the tasks required by the e-evidence package. Thus, a new office for international co-operation must be established. As the Minister indicated, Ireland is a significant European headquarters for a considerable number of social media platforms, digital companies and regulatory functions. Clearly, he has estimated that, as a consequence of this, the number of requests made to Ireland to deal with this could be in the hundreds of thousands annually.
There are no details provided, apart from the office set-up costs in relation to the office or its ongoing functions beyond the €2.8 million identified. There are projections of up to 150 staff required for that. The Minister has quite rightly said that this will enhance Ireland's reputation, but only if we have sufficient resources to carry out the functions that are being demanded of us. When Department officials appeared before the committee, they were completely unable to outline what the costs of dealing with the majority of requests may come to. No clarity was provided. That is further compounded by indications from Department officials that it is intended that additional roles will be ascribed to the office such as in European investigation orders. There is no real clarity in relation to that.
The Bill will allow foreign authorities to obtain identifying data from Irish-based companies at speed. As the Minister said, Ireland could be processing hundreds of thousands of requests every year. Will he outline what the impact will be on the Garda and the courts? Will they require additional resources, given that we will be the focus of most of the activities relating to this in Europe? While the Government indicated that the impact on the Courts Service, which is already under significant pressure, in the context of dealing with excessive backlogs will be minimal, in reality, the Courts Service has been far more circumspect in its analysis of what this might mean for it. As stated, the service is already stretched beyond capacity.
Additional clarity is also required on safeguards in place to protect citizens' rights. Digital Rights Ireland has described the e-evidence package as having minimal fundamental rights safeguards. Will the Minister outline the safeguards which exist in relation to data requests from member states which have lower democratic protections than those in operation here?
In respect of small businesses, we are concerned about the administrative burden this legislation may introduce. While we welcome the creation of the decentralised IT system to facilitate engagement and reporting by SMEs, will the Minister clarify the status of this and if it will be live by the August compliance deadline?
The proposed legislation is rushed with many questions remaining in terms of key provisions, particularly in terms of sovereignty, safeguards and rule of law and, as such, we will be unable to support the Bill at this Stage.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24