Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let me explain to Deputy Mac Lochlainn what we are doing, because I think there is some confusion between us. I am not asking the committee to support this regulation in its present form. I deliberately went through what it contains and I have already sign-posted some of the matters contained in it that will not be accepted. One of the focuses of the Irish EU Presidency was whether or not CEPOL would be integrated within Europol. That will not happen. We still have a measure that provides for that, although it will not be progressed. We have two choices as a State. We either opt in at this stage to the deliberations that are taking place, so that we can make our contribution to remedy any frailties in the proposed regulation by proposing any necessary amendments and engaging in that process, or we do not opt in. If we do not opt in, we are officially excluded from the development and improvement of the measure. The opt-in is to allow us to engage. At the end of the process we have an option to stand aside. We can see what happens at the end of it and then simply opt in to adopt it at a later stage. Then, however, we will not have had any opportunity to make our views known or to influence the outcome.

We are already part and parcel of Europol and are engaged with it. Europol does very important work and the Garda Síochána can access Europol's database, particularly in dealing with international crime issues. Apart from terrorist issues, I am referring to drug crime. International drug gangs are bringing drugs from one part of Europe to another. Some bring drugs into Ireland, while others use Ireland as an access point for other parts of Europe. On occasion, one sees newspaper reports of co-ordinated police action in three or four EU states to bust a drugs gang. Such busts often take place as a consequence of co-ordinated exchanges of information, not only directly between police forces but also using Europol's facilities. It is very important that we should remain part of that.

It is not my view that the directive, in its current form, is perfect and should remain unchanged. During the Irish EU Presidency the two big issues were, first, whether this measure would proceed and, second, if it did, would the CEPOL proposal be a part of it? There was a lot of controversy about that and it was the focus of attention.

I would urge members of the committee, including Deputy Mac Lochlainn's party, to support it. We are seeking support to opt in to the negotiation process so that we can contribute directly to any discussions necessary to improve the provisions. It is our reading of this that in a number of ways it reinforces and improves data protection, but if there are frailties in the data protection area we will obviously have regard to the submission that the Deputy referred to. We will also have regard to our own internal assessments. We will bring that discussion into the negotiations which will take place under the Lithuanian EU Presidency for the instrument to be agreed in a final form. If we opt out, however, we cannot participate in that discussion. Therefore we would be a part of the current Europol but not engaged in discussions as to how we can make things better.