Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I just want to clarify. I am certainly not suggesting that any of the Deputies here are highlighting issues for the purpose of obstructing the legislation or, indeed, trying to obstruct the work of An Garda Síochána. Deputies are highlighting issues that are of concern to them. Similarly, however, in responding to them I have to be able to say be able to say how I think in practice the amendment, if enacted, would impact An Garda Síochána. My view is that if this amendment was enacted, it would have a very negative operational impact on the force because of the fact that we are dealing with images that can come in bundles of hundreds or thousands. If we are going to have a chief superintendent who has to authorise each one of them before biometric analysis can take place, that is going to have a very limiting impact on the work of the Garda. In fact, the likelihood is that it will just become a paper-signing exercise or a box-ticking exercise and it would undermine the whole purpose of the real measures that are going to be put in place to ensure there is proper oversight.
Deputy Carthy said he did not gain much confidence from the code of practice. He should reserve his comments in respect of that because a code of practice setting out procedures surrounding the use of retrospective biometric analysis will be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. It will be subject to debate and resolutions being passed. It will be published as a statutory instrument, making it a publicly available document. Human rights and data protection impact assessments will be required as part of the procedure for drafting a code of practice. In respect of the code, the Garda Commissioner, as is the case with the current codes of practice under the principal Act, will have to consult with several bodies listed in section 47A, which is to be inserted by section 10 in this Bill, and publish the code for views prior to adoption. There is, therefore, a whole statutory mechanism to ensure there is oversight and engagement in respect of the finalisation of those codes of practice.
Where gardaí are deploying a high-risk AI system, there will be criteria to be fulfilled more generally under the AI Act for deployers, as I mentioned earlier, and the providers of systems will also have to fulfil certain criteria. Notwithstanding this, the Data Protection Acts will continue to apply, as set out in section 4 of the principal Act. There is also oversight whereby a High Court judge will be required to report to the Taoiseach annually on the code. There is a huge amount of oversight there. I believe it is sufficient to ensure there is public confidence in the work that is being done by An Garda Síochána should this provision be enacted. I have to say, however, that I remain opposed to the amendment we are discussing now because I think it would have a very negative impact operationally on the work of An Garda Síochána.

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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