Criminal Justice (International Cooperation on Electronic Evidence and Other Matters) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-17
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Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

I move amendment No. 4:
In page 15, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following:
"(g) the Data Protection Commission.".
Like the previous amendments, these are simple proposals. Amendment No. 4 seeks to facilitate the office of the director of criminal justice international co-operation in making representations to or assisting the Data Protection Commission, DPC, in regard to the e-evidence package in the same way the legislation provides for such co-operation in the case of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Coimisiún na Meán, the Corporate Enforcement Authority, Fiosrú, An Garda Síochána and the Revenue Commissioners. Amendment No. 5 does something very similar in facilitating the office of the director to enter into an information-sharing agreement with the DPC in the same way it can do so with those other offices.
There are significant implications for data protection in Ireland arising from this Bill. To some extent, we will, in effect, be ceding sovereignty to courts in other jurisdictions. That is why the facilitation I am proposing should be included. At the committee hearing, the departmental officials stated that the DPC did not consider it appropriate that it be the enforcement authority, and the Department accepted that. I, too, am willing to accept it. However, if the Department engaged with the commission at one point, as acknowledged by the officials, that suggests it believed at that point that the commission might be the appropriate body to deal with these matters. That surely is an acknowledgement that there is an overlap of functions or at least a relevance. Given everything we have already spoken about, it would be a welcome assurance for the legislation at least to formally facilitate engagement between the two bodies even if it did not mandate what that might look like at this time.
These are mainly technical amendments but they are important ones. I urge the Government to accept them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-17