Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree that there must be a higher threshold in terms of the courts architecture.

A point mentioned by Deputy Ó Laoghaire is that if there were to be a split protection, might it be possible for someone, possibly a law enforcement agency, to try to explore or discover a source's communications with a journalist as a means to reach the journalist? Has that been explored in any way or is there any academic research on that issue? If there is a split protection a law enforcement agency could reroute its investigation toward who it suspects of being the source and that would undermine the journalist's protection. Deputy Daly's point may be relevant in that regard. If there were split protection, could that scenario be the means through which a law enforcement agency would reach a journalist and undermine his or her protection? It is a very hypothetical point.