I thank the Deputy for outlining the current position and what we discussed previously. It is a given that the processing of personal data by any party must be in accordance with GDPR and law, particularly the legal framework provided by GDPR. As the Deputy noted, the advice I have been given is that section 41 does not alter that in any way or affect the data privacy rights of any person. If it had been intended to provide such a basis in the legislation, that would have to be explicitly provided for in the Bill. …

In the same regard, I do not think the amendment is necessary on the basis that there is no way that this Bill, as it currently stands and is drafted, could be interpreted as designating a service provider as a public body within the meaning of the 2019 Act. The only way that the Bill could actually have such an effect is that if it contained a specific provision amending the 2019 Act to state that, and to that effect. From the advice that I have received, if the Bill did intend to allow the Minister to designate a…

I sincerely thank all of my colleagues for their support in the passing of these Stages. This is extremely important legislation, not least because of what it means for the future. It will ensure that irrespective of who is in this Chamber and what year we are in, the issue of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence will remain firmly on the agenda. It will allow for the establishment of an agency for the first time whose sole focus and responsibility will be combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence,…

I thank the Acting Chairperson for the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I thank my colleagues in the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party and the Fine Gael Seanad group for tabling this legislation and for working so proactively on it. I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss it as I did not have the opportunity previously. The Bill stems from an initiative by Young Fine Gael. I acknowledge those of its members who are here and their colleagues who have worked on this and I thank them for all of their work in b…

Just to say that the advice that I have received from the Garda, the Director of Public Prosecutions and Forensic Science Ireland is relatively recent, so we still have to go through it. My intention is to meet with colleagues and Young Fine Gael to look at what is the best vehicle or pathway to bring this issue forward. I hope to do it as soon as possible.

What Senators Ruane and Flynn are proposing is to prohibit the use of devices that are capable of processing using FRT. Under the Data Protection Act 2018, specific primary legislation would be necessary for the use of FRT. This Bill would retain the status quo . We have obviously introduced plans to bring forward a separate Bill looking at facial recognition technology. Separate legislation will ensure that we have time to tease out and debate the issues we know have been discussed previously. I will say again on …

Amendment No. 3 is a technical amendment to update the expenses provision of the Bill to reflect the change in the name of the Department. As Senators are aware, the Government formally agreed to change the name of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform with effect from 1 February. Amendment No. 4 is a minor technical amendment to ensure the wording is clear that the recording device can operate on an animal if the recor…

We are discussing amendments Nos. 5, 6 and 8 to 12, inclusive. The proposal is to make clear that Garda personnel would be required to turn on their cameras when asked to do so. This would ultimately be a matter for the code of practice, which is dealt with in section 43. This will outline clearly the circumstances in which Garda personnel have to turn on their cameras, including how they should react to a request to do so from members of the public. The codes of practice will be published and made available for re…

They would have to be set out but they have not been decided on yet. That can only be done when a decision has been taken. I know this is referred to in a later amendment but there will be a pilot and the intention is that it will be up and running in the middle of next year. It will allow us to tease through any issues that may arise and that would necessitate any changes.

On the last point, as I outlined, gardaí absolutely will notify people but there may be circumstances where they cannot do so. If they are in a crowded area, for example, where a protest develops into a riot and one garda shouts to tell everybody about the camera, not everyone will hear that. It is just not possible to require that absolutely everybody be informed in that scenario. In an extreme situation such as a hostage scenario, gardaí will have no ability to tell everybody involved. In general, however, the in…

On the latter question, many of the new cars that have been purchased have that inbuilt technology, whereas the older cars do not.

It will allow for this to be part of the overall system. My understanding is that, at the moment, if gardaí are asking for dashcam footage from a separate car, such footage would have to be specific to a case for which they are seeking information or data in the same way as applies with CCTV, automatic number plate recognition, ANPR, or anything else. The new Garda cars have this technology built in but the older ones do not. The intention is that as we update the fleet and invest in it, all Garda cars will have it…

My understanding is that it is for the court to decide whether such footage is admissible. It certainly can be used in the development of a case or as part of gathering information. I can clarify that for the Senator. My understanding is that the decision on whether anything is admissible will still very much be a matter for the courts even if this legislation is enacted.

This is very much in line with the discussion we have just had regarding when and where a member of An Garda Síochána can turn on or off the devices. This will be clearly set out in the code of practice. Obviously, if members veer off the code of practice and turn a camera off when they should not or do not turn it on when they clearly should, they are open to disciplinary proceedings. That said, we need to take into account the circumstances in which an incident arises. There might, for example, be a physical assa…

I wish to apologise regarding the previous amendments. I thought we were going through them separately. On the question of the sharing of images, that falls under other legislation, including the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act, known as Coco's law. Under that legislation, it is a crime to share information that gardaí may have. I offer my apologies to the House because I thought we were coming on to that next. Regarding amendment No. 24 and all the amendments in this group, in the inter…

Amendments to sections 17 and 18 deal with focused monitoring and have been grouped together. These are designed to replace the requirement for an authorisation from a garda ranked not below superintendent with an authorisation instead being required from a District Court judge. The proposed changes make it inoperable, essentially, as the provisions will cease to make sense. For example, the Bill with the proposed amendments would effectively be stating that the relevant judge of the District Court is independent o…

We are talking about applying this to any type of investigation relating to an arrestable offence or matters relating to security of the State. The three-month cut-off where one would have to go to a judge afterwards is a maximum. The intention is that there would be less than three months applied where one is specifically focused on targeting a particular individual relating to a particular case. If a judge has to be sought for every single case of this kind across the country in every jurisdiction, it is timely, …

Amendments Nos. 36 and 37 seek to include the impact of such focused monitoring on the privacy and fundamental rights of the individual or individuals concerned. The Senator is essentially asking that a garda of any grade make such an evaluation on privacy and fundamental rights when obviously that is taken into account. Gardaí are also trained to make decisions based on necessity and proportionality. This goes beyond what is required by gardaí to make a legal evaluation. It is unfair to ask them to do that. I abso…

I was not fully sure as to the reason behind this amendment. There is probably a view that certain people would not want to speak to someone directly and that they would prefer to leave a voicemail. The provisions in this section allow the Garda Commissioner to designate telephone lines or numbers that are to be recorded, for example, 999 lines or fixed penalty notice lines. There could also be a particular tip-off line, if that was something that the Commissioner decided. Obviously, it would have to be made clear …

The intention behind this particular part of the Bill is to rectify issues that have arisen whereby communities have not been able to roll out CCTV in recent years because of GDPR concerns that were raised by the Data Protection Commissioner a number of years ago now. This clarifies how they can be rolled out and used, and where they can be used. It is very much about the local authority working with the gardaí. Obviously, every local authority has public representatives and has a very public forum, so any decision…