Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is very helpful for my understanding of this. What we are trying to make clear is that vesting the Garda with a function does not mean that the powers of, say, surveillance or interception conferred in other enactments automatically become available to the member of An Garda Síochána in the performance of this particular function. For crystal clarity, there is security legislation and there are powers, for example, to deal with sabotage and so on available to An Garda Síochána specifically for that purpose, but as regards operating in the security space, under this legislation, under this definition in this section, no additional powers are being conferred on gardaí unless they are specifically available in another enactment. Is that what the Minister is telling me?

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