Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) (Amendment) Bill 2025: From the Seanad
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-08
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Catherine Ardagh (FF), Dublin South-Central

Live FRT will be dealt with in separate legislation. I believe we have sufficient guardrails in place in this legislation. The amendments from the Seanad pull international co-operation into the purposes for which biometric analysis may be utilised. This means that where gardaí wish to utilise biometric analysis in the context of international co-operation, the safeguards in the Bill will apply, including the use of tests that are necessary and proportionate, and that there must be human oversight. A written list of use must be kept, and there is also oversight by a High Court judge, among others.
It has been stressed repeatedly throughout the passage of this Bill that it is of the utmost importance that there can be effective international co-operation, and the Bill does not impede such co-operation. This is particularly in the case of child sexual abuse material investigations. An Garda Síochána regularly engages with its counterparts in other EU states and with international organisations, such as Interpol and Europol, in the fight against what are absolutely heinous crimes, as I think we can all agree. We can also see how important co-operation among law enforcement agencies is when we look at the recent arrest of a man, who is wanted in Germany for child kidnapping, illegal restraint and hostage taking, as part of an international operation targeting human trafficking.
As I said, there must be a clear justification for any requests coming to An Garda Síochána. Equally, as with the use of biometric analysis, there must be a clear justification for its use in any investigation for any of the purposes listed in section 43C. I do not have anything further to add at this stage.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08