Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026 [Seanad]: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Cormac Devlin (FF), Dún Laoghaire

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I commend the Minister and his officials on bringing forward this Bill. I believe it is his 24th Bill so far this year, which is quite remarkable.
This legislation updates and modernises Garda powers around stop and search, entry and search, and the treatment of people in custody, bringing it all together under one single Act. It follows on from the 2018 recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing and is another programme for Government commitment being delivered by the Minister. The Bill is also a response to recent legal judgments. In Corcoran v. the Commissioner 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the protection of journalistic sources as a cornerstone of a free press and called for urgent legislative action. In Quirke, the court recognised that a phone or a computer is a separate digital space, and in Landeck, the Court of Justice of the European Union set out what is required before a device is examined. This Bill answers all three of those.
The Bill also introduces important safeguards. No device may be examined without judicial authorisation. A judge must be satisfied that access is necessary and proportionate and may refuse. Where privileged material arises, it is the High Court that decides and legal professional privilege remains absolute.
The safeguards elsewhere in the Bill are new and worth noting. For the first time, for instance, a person who is stopped and searched must be told in plain language why they are being searched and under what provision. A record must be made of every search and the person can obtain such a copy. The right to a solicitor before and during interviews will be placed on a statutory footing and a child cannot waive it. These are real protections that do not exist in statute today.
The Bill is part of a wider body of work. I welcome the Minister's focus on the issue that my constituents raise most with me, namely, the number of gardaí on the ground in our community. A record budget of €2.74 billion was allocated this year to support policing. The target of 5,000 additional gardaí is being pursued through continuous recruitment, with 206 gardaí attesting in July alone, the highest level since 2019. The high-visibility policing plan has been extended to DMR East - my own area - which is welcome. Forty-five new gardaí have been assigned to the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area.
On the ground, people have noticed an increased Garda presence in our towns and villages, and indeed in our community. They also noticed last month that gardaí in DMR East seized over €100,000 worth of drugs, along with cash and scrambler bikes in an intelligence-led operation. That is precisely the power this Bill is putting on a more secure footing. I commend our local Garda team, led by Chief Superintendent David Kennedy, Superintendents Brian Halligan, Gordon Woulfe and Denis Whelan, as well as Detective Superintendent Brian O'Keeffe, all the inspectors, sergeants and specialist units and, of course, the gardaí working in our community on their efforts to keep people safe.
The Minister will be aware the population of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has increased significantly since 2020, with new housing in Cherrywood, Carrickmines and Woodbrook. While the recent allocation is very welcome, more gardaí will be required. The Minister will also be aware of my ongoing raising of the issue of a new Garda station required in the new town of Cherrywood, one of the fastest growing communities in the State, which is located along the M50 and provides excellent access to operate specialist units from.
I look forward to continuing to work with the Minister as he makes further progress on policing and tackling antisocial and criminal behaviour in our communities.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16