Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13 ============================================================ Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan I move amendment No. 1: In page 4, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “ ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the acts specified in Article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court; ‘genocide’ means any of the acts specified in Article 6 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court; ‘war crime’ means any of the acts specified in Article 8.2 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.”. Amendment No. 1 inserts these definitions. Amendment No. 4, which is a substantive amendment, reads: Prohibition on procurement or use of certain technologies 43DA. (1) An Garda Síochána, the Minister, or any public body acting on their behalf shall not procure, license, contract for, deploy, or otherwise make operational use of any biometric analysis technology, surveillance technology, software, hardware, dataset, or related service supplied by— (a) a company incorporated, headquartered, or substantially operating in a state engaged in war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, (b) a subsidiary, affiliate, or parent undertaking of such a company, or (c) any entity that develops, trains, sources, or operates biometric or surveillance systems using data, infrastructure, or technology originating a state engaged in war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. (2) For the purposes of this section, ‘surveillance technology’ includes any system capable of biometric analysis, facial recognition, behavioural categorisation, pattern of life analysis, or the processing of biometric data within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 2018. (3) Any existing contract, memorandum of understanding, or procurement arrangement that contravenes subsection (1) shall not be renewed, extended, or varied, and shall be terminated at the earliest date ... (4) Nothing in this section shall prevent the Minister from authorising the temporary retention of data or equipment solely for the purpose of evidential preservation ... (5) No biometric data collected, processed, or retained under this Act shall be transferred to, processed by, or stored on any server, cloud service, or technological infrastructure— (a) located in a state engaged in war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. (b) controlled by an entity referred to in subsection (1), or (c) operated using software, firmware, or backend systems originating in a state engaged in war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.” The reason for these amendments is that banning the use of technology from states engaged in war crimes and genocide should not even be up for debate. It should be an absolute given. We know that An Garda Síochána has used and is probably still using surveillance technology originating from the State of Israel. The record of Israel is highly problematic from both a national security perspective and because it is supporting a genocidal regime that uses this very technology to target Palestinians. In 2023, for example, An Garda Síochána paid €278,000 to Cognyte, an Israeli surveillance technology company. Its main product is an investigative analytics platform that uses AI, facial recognition and data aggregation to analyse communications, CCTV, social media and much more. The company has a really controversial history. Its tools have been used in Indonesia to monitor LGBT and religious minorities. They have been used in Myanmar and South Sudan for mass interception. A Brazilian investigation alleges that the Cognyte system was used under the Bolsonaro regime to track political opponents. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, cannot guarantee at present that this company's tools would not be used for the provisions under the recording devices Bill that we are discussing. We also know that the Garda has paid hundreds of thousands of euro to an Israeli cyberdefence company that has worked with Israeli authorities to target Palestinians during the current genocide in Palestine. That company, Cellebrite, has deep links to the Israeli military and intelligence and has previously been criticised by many international groups for selling its technology to repressive governments. This company has been used by Israel to target Palestinians throughout the current genocide in Gaza. In 2021 alone, the Garda spent over €200,000 on that company's services. While it is important that gardaí have access to technology, including the deception technology required to detect and prosecute serious crimes, alternatives have to be found to using companies from states that are engaged in war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity. Without enshrining this in law, I do not believe that will happen. The experience to date says it will not happen. In 2024, the Government banned future purchases of military equipment from Israel due to the actions of the Israeli Government in Gaza, but this ban did not apply to An Garda Síochána. The acceptance of these amendments would mirror and be wholly consistent with the position that the Government has taken with respect to the purchase of military equipment by the Defence Forces. It would also be important - I want to stress this - that from a national security perspective, it would make absolutely no sense to procure this type of technology from a state that has been quite blatantly hostile to Ireland simply because this State has stood up against the crime of genocide that is occurring in Gaza. I encourage and implore the Minister to accept amendments Nos. 1 and 4 so that we can enshrine their provisions in this legislation and ensure that we provide new powers to the Garda to procure equipment that will have very extensive capabilities while at the same time not assisting what is now by definition a rogue state. --- 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/dail/2026-05-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-13