Mr. David Fennell:

The function of Eurojust is to co-ordinate meetings of prosecutors and try to speed up mutual assistance requests. The Director of Public Prosecutions and Garda Síochána would be better placed to provide the Chairman with an assessment of the value of Ireland's participation in the body. From dealing with Garda and DPP colleagues, I do not get a sense that there is a significant level of interaction between Irish agencies and Eurojust. This may be for a number of reasons.

First, we are a common law state. By definition, the organisation comprises investigating judges and prosecutors. Unlike some of his colleagues, our national member does not have a function in investigating crime. Second, we are an island and, therefore, issues of conflict of jurisdiction, which is a particular issue with which Eurojust must deal, are not as pressing for us. For example, where a robbery is organised in Belgium, carried out in Holland and the money is laundered in Luxembourg and arrests are made in Germany, which is a relatively small geographic area, issues arise such as where the crime should be prosecuted, which country and investigating judge should take the lead and where the evidence should be sent and so on. This situation is not as common in Ireland. We already have in place long-standing mechanisms on a North-South and east-west basis in terms of bilateral co-operation. I do not get the impression from Garda Síochána and Director of Public Prosecution colleagues, who would be far better placed to respond to this question, that there is a significant level of interaction between Irish agencies and Eurojust. Essentially, our national member is a useful contact point but would not exercise the same type of investigative powers exercised by many of his colleagues.