Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the last point, that is something I could consider. Obviously, it is not something we are considering for the purpose of this Bill, where the particular section under Part 17 is to change an anomaly whereby those from the UK would automatically be termed as “non-national” and that would, of course, mean that citizens coming from the UK to Ireland would have to produce a passport or some form of identification. This legislation seeks simply to change that anomaly. Nonetheless, I take the Senator’s point. I accept what he is saying and that is certainly something I would consider taking on board.

In regard to the extradition request, as the Senator rightly outlined, these are handled by the central authority, which is located within the Department of justice currently. What we are attempting to do here is to remove a layer whereby such requests would initially come through the Department of Foreign Affairs in a hard copy – essentially, in a diplomatic bag. We are trying to remove that so it comes directly to my Department in order to make the process easier overall.