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

We are talking about the exchange of information between the police forces across the EU. However, we should not forget that An Garda Síochána deals with what I describe as State intelligence issues. There is a crossover. If our gardaí are dealing with subversives in this country, they would have intelligence on subversives. People who engage in international terrorism are effectively committing crimes. They might murder someone or blow individuals up so intelligence or data in these areas is a relevant issue. In the context of Europol, this proposal does a number of things. It modernises Europol's data processing structure. The goal is to enable Europol's analysts to swiftly identify all the links between sensitive data and patterns in criminal activities. If those criminal activities are terrorist activities, that is intelligence, if one wants to put it another way. If, as a result of examining sets of data, it can be predicted that someone might blow a dozen people up on the streets of London or that somebody in this country might be assassinated, this is intelligence. There is no dividing line between police work and intelligence. Modern police work in this State is based on good intelligence. Having targeted operations is based on having the intelligence regarding who to target and knowing what they are going to do so one cannot easily divide those things.

It is important that Europol operates in a manner that is appropriate. That is why there are data protection provisions in place. I come back to what Deputy Mac Lochlainn said. I understand his frustration about this but this is the structure on which the EU is based and on which our engagement is based on the justice side. It is not within my power to change that structure. As the Chairman said, the negotiation on this instrument will go on for some time. On the basis that we opt into it and will be engaged, I am happy if members of the committee came back to us some time in September having further examined this instrument and made suggestions as to improvements that could be made to it. Obviously, they can be assessed by us in the context of the work we will do in the negotiation process on the instrument. I have no difficulty with that and am happy to encourage members to do that. It will be added value to the work we are doing.