Criminal Justice (International Cooperation on Electronic Evidence and Other Matters) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-07
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Catherine Ardagh (FF), Dublin South-Central

Regretfully, I cannot accept these amendments. Section 20 requires the publication of an annual report, which shall include such information as the director considers appropriate or as the director may direct. The section deliberately did not prescribe in detail exactly what statistical data should be included. We are setting up a new entity, and until we have some experience of how it operates, it would be premature to determine what statistical information is most relevant and available. I believe we should maintain a flexible approach at this stage, but I will put on the record that I see no reason for the information referred to in the amendment not to be included in the annual report in due course. I remind Senators that the Freedom of Information Act will apply, so there will be no question of hiding information.
On amendment No. 6, the e-evidence package, as set out in the relevant regulation and directive, is an EU-wide measure. Article 28 of the regulation provides for the European Commission to establish a detailed programme for monitoring and reporting the outputs, results and impacts of the regulations and member states are obliged to gather the statistical data specified in Article 28(2). Some of the data may be collected by the director but it would not be right to impose a legal obligation on the director to gather data that may be more easily collected through other sources. The new regulation already provides a legally binding mechanism for monitoring and reporting and would not be appropriate or a good use of resources to try to create a duplicate system at this stage.

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