Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I will briefly deal first with amendments Nos. 60 to 62, inclusive. They comprise a new Part 17 that concerns electronic technology in certain proceedings. Amendment No. 60 inserts a new section into the Bill to define the types of proceedings in question, including criminal proceedings and relevant proceedings under various international co-operation enactments. Amendments Nos. 61 and 62 insert new sections into the Bill to provide, respectively, that court rules may, in relation to such proceedings, make provision for the electronic transmission in documents in such proceedings and for electronic statements of truth in lieu of sworn declarations. These amendments are modelled on equivalent legislation that is already in place in civil proceedings. They have the potential to generate substantial time and cost savings and other efficiencies for court users generally but also for agencies such as the Prison Service or the Garda which at present must spend considerable amounts of time getting affidavits and declarations sworn and delivering documents to and collecting them from the courts. These may include charge sheets, bench warrants and committal warrants. Under these amendments it will be possible for such documents to be generated electronically and transmitted between the courts and other agencies in real time, thereby obviating the need for costly and time-consuming manual transmission, delivery, collection of documents and retranscription of data. This will have significant benefits also for data accuracy and security. These amendments will make our courts system much more efficient and will ensure gardaí and prison officers do not need to spend an inordinate amount of time generating documents and will now be able to transmit them electronically.
Amendments Nos. 63 to 97, inclusive, and Nos. 102 to 104, inclusive, make up the vast bulk of the Report Stage amendments. They relate to passenger name record data. I am proposing to insert a new Part 18 into the Bill. Passenger name record data, PNR, consists of booking information provided by passengers that is collected by airlines. It is used widely as a law-enforcement tool. There is a directive from 2016 which Ireland opted into to which we are bound. That established a regime that mandated the transfer of PNR data by airlines to national passenger information units.
They are the State agencies for which the acronym "PIUs" is sometimes used. The transferred PNR data is then compared by PIUs against watch lists, databases and other criteria before take-off and landing to detect suspicious travel patterns and identify serious criminals and terrorists. Where identification occurs, the related PNR data is referred on to the appropriate law enforcement authorities for further examination.
Ireland transposed the PNR directive in 2018 through the EU PNR data regulations, whereby a PIU was established in the Department of justice. The regulations apply the regime only to what are referred to as non-EU flights or extra-EU flights, as required by the directive. They are flights between Ireland and countries outside the EU. The directive allows member states, as an option, to apply the directive to intra-EU flights. Ireland is the only member state bound by the directive that does not yet apply its PNR regime to intra-EU flights. The purpose of these amendments is to put it on a statutory basis in the first instance. Previously, it was dealt with through secondary legislation, that is, statutory instrument. The second purpose is to apply the PNR regime to internal EU flights. This will plug a significant gap in our security infrastructure.
Amendments Nos. 63 to 67, inclusive, insert Chapter 1 of Part 18. These are standard legislative proceedings. They refer to a definitions section and other matters.
Amendments Nos. 68 to 73, inclusive, insert Chapter 2, which relates to the Irish passenger information unit, its director, protection officer and other staff and its obligations. They very much replicate what is in the 2018 PNR regulations while providing for the continuation of the PIU's current staff, notwithstanding the revocation of the 2018 regulations.
Amendments Nos. 74 to 76, inclusive, insert Chapter 3 of Part 18. Amendment No. 74 provides for the competent authorities designated under the 2018 regulations to remain so designated under this Part. They are the law enforcement agencies such as An Garda Síochána. Amendment No. 75 provides that the Minister may designate a person as the independent authority. The main function of the authority will be approving PNR requests. Amendment No. 76 sets out the Data Protection Commission's oversight function as regards this legislation.
Amendments Nos. 77 to 79, inclusive, insert Chapter 4 of Part 18. This chapter provides for the designation by the PIU of individual intra-EU flights, which will be encompassed by the State's PNR regime. An intra-EU flight can be designated for up to six months when considered necessary. Amendment No. 79 provides for a designation of all intra-EU flights unilaterally when the State is faced with a genuine present or foreseeable terrorist threat. That can only be done on approval by the High Court, which means there is judicial supervision of this statutory provision.
Amendments Nos. 80 to 88, inclusive, insert a new Chapter 5 in Part 18 dealing with the transfer and exchange of PNR data. Amendment No. 80 refers to airlines' obligations to transfer PNR data to the PIU a day before take-off and when doors shut in preparation for departure. Amendments Nos. 81 and 82 refer to the process undertaken by the PIU of assessing the transferred PNR data against serious crime or terrorism watch lists and predetermined criteria to identify persons of interest due to take the flight or go on board. Amendments Nos. 83 to 88, inclusive, deal with requests for PNR data held by the PIU from competent authorities in the State, PIUs in other EU countries, Europol and third countries, as well as requests by the Irish PIU to a PIU of another member state.
Amendments Nos. 89 and 90 insert Chapter 6 of Part 18. It deals with the retention periods for PNR data and maintenance of documentation by the PIU. In line with the EU court judgment, PNR data transferred to the PIU from airlines can be retained for six months, after which the Irish PIU normally must delete it.
Amendments Nos. 91 to 97, inclusive, insert Chapter 7 of Part 18, which deals with transitional provisions. Collectively, the amendments ensure that various actions, processes and requests undertaken just before the coming into operation of the new Part will continue to have a lawful basis and can seamlessly transfer to the new provisions.
Amendments Nos. 102 to 104, inclusive, insert Schedules 2 to 4, inclusive, which relate to Part 18. Schedule 2 defines the data categories that make up PNR data, as set out in the EU PNR directive. Schedule 4 lists the offences under Irish law that meet the definition of "serious crime" in the PNR directive. The offences must fit a crime category prescribed by the directive and have a maximum prison sentence of at least three years. Schedule 3 lists the competent authorities in the State that can request PNR data. The Minister can add to Schedules 3 and 4 by way of order but only within the parameters of the definition of "competent authority" and "serious crime" in the EU directive.
Amendment No. 4 simply amends the Long Title consequential on these amendments.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02