Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

The difficulty is that we know An Garda Síochána has purchased this type of equipment from companies that have close relationships with the Israeli regime. The current legal position is that this can continue. The Minister mentioned that we did not need to put this in primary legislation, but since Committee Stage up to now, I do not understand why the Minister did not cut this off at the pass by introducing these types of provision by regulation, as has been the case in respect of the Defence Forces. The Minister should answer to the House as to why he has not done that.
In the absence of such a move, the only inference that can be taken is that there must be at least the interest in keeping the option of the Garda using companies that are engaged and collaborating in a genocide for the purpose of purchasing material that will ultimately be used to carry out biometric recognition in respect of Irish citizens. That is deeply concerning. For that reason, this House should put on the record where it stands on this issue. This will come back to bite the Government if it does not accept this amendment or bring forward the regulations that would provide the comfort. This is not just in respect of Israel. It is in respect of Russia and any other state that is engaged in activities that are declared by the International Criminal Court, ICC, to be either genocide or war crimes.

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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