Council of the European Union Decision: Motions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-23
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Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central

Our party will support Ireland opting into the Council decision on signing the conclusion of the agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Korea on the transfer of passenger name record data. Co-operation in the fight against serious crime and terrorism is clearly necessary, and we realise the important role that data plays in supporting investigations into serious crime and terrorism. Ireland already participates in similar PNR agreements with the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. South Korea has also had an EU data protection adequacy decision since 2021, which is an important consideration when assessing the protections that will apply to European citizens' data. As I have said ad nauseam when discussing the PNR arrangements in this House, support for the agreement should not mean that we should not mean that we stop scrutinising how these systems operate. The Government's briefing acknowledges that the transfer and use of PNR data by a third country constitutes an interference with the fundamental rights of EU citizens. That is important to note. We are talking about the large-scale processing and transfer of personal information overwhelmingly to ordinary people who are suspected of absolutely nothing. European courts have repeatedly made clear that systems of this nature must be accompanied by meaningful and enforceable safeguards that should mean limitations around the purposes for which information can be used, proper limits on retention and independent oversight.
I ask the Minister to ensure that Ireland continues to monitor the operation of this agreement and that as these arrangements develop, fundamental rights and data protection remain central to our participation. There is a broader principle here, which brings me to something that relates to the Minister. Safeguards are only meaningful if the institutions responsible for enforcing them can be trusted to do so. In that regard, it has been over a week since the "RTÉ Investigates" programme concerning the treatment of protected disclosures within An Garda Síochána. The Minister spoke on RTÉ 1 earlier. He has not yet addressed the Dáil on the many questions that Members have.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-23