Ms Geraldine Moore:

The urgency provision will be used mostly in relation to missing persons. An Garda Síochána has told us that in the year up to October 2016, there were 1,027 missing persons. Approximately 500 to 600 of those went missing late at night. In those circumstances, An Garda Síochána would ask the service providers to tell them the last known location of the person's mobile phone. That is where they would envisage using the urgency provision without judicial authorisation.