Mr. Andrew Munro:

Absolutely, Article 18 deals with conducting the investigation and Article 26, which deals with investigation states: "The European Public Prosecutor’s Office shall have the power to request or to order the following investigative measures when exercising its competence:". It then lists from (a) to (u) of everything one can think of that one might want in terms of an investigative power from interview, search, production of documents and so on. It is a model that is very different from the one we operate in Ireland.

It also provides difficulties for other member states that have a role for an investigating magistrate, where it is not all in the hands of the prosecutor. That is also a complication. Some of that is reflected - certainly the centralisation of control is reflected in the debate in the Justice and Home Affairs Council last week around structure, in which many member states are advancing the argument for the structure to be more collegial, which would see more power left to member states and their representatives in a college in which there would be a more co-operative rather than a centralised approach.