Mr. John O'Driscoll:

This morning I met with the chief superintendents in each of the bureaus I have mentioned to discuss relevant issues. We have ongoing investigations and we discuss the legislation we have on the Statute Book. As I have referred to, we use a wide range of legislation. The criminals are continuously changing tack so each jurisdiction needs to make sure its legislation is sufficient to tackle the issue involved. In this regard, the Minister for Justice has announced new legislation that is planned, the Garda Síochána (powers) Bill. This will be important legislation from our perspective insofar as we are constantly seizing media equipment that we require to search but we do not necessarily have the sufficient powers to access what is on those media devices. The proposed legislation will allow us to use a single power of arrest in particular in relation to particular offences. It will allow us to search and to demand access to the content of media equipment. Where people fail to provide passwords, etc., there will be significant offences involved. This legislation is necessary because there is no point in us seizing the media equipment that is so important to the relevant investigation if we cannot access what is on it. If we are prevented from accessing the content then there must be a penalty involved. In Operation Ketch, for example, on four occasions we searched numerous premises where we know that child abuse imagery is being utilised and we seized equipment. The equipment is getting more sophisticated and has greater capacity, and we need the capability to access that data. The Deputy asked about what we need to do our job into the future. We need better equipment. We are in the process of acquiring that in recent months.

Decryption equipment has been provided which will help us. This morning, I talked to my team about other equipment which we believe would be useful to us. We are preparing a business plan so that our capacity will match that of the criminal networks involved to be able to tackle them. Constant review of the relevant legislation by the Legislature will probably be necessary. In some regards, much of what we are dealing with here is what one person described as "unknown unknowns". We do not know what is ahead of. There are crimes that we would not have envisaged just a short few years ago which we are now required to tackle. Some of the recent legislation has been especially useful. Continuous monitoring and strengthening of that legislation will be necessary.

One aspect of legislation that we frequently use relates to organised crime. Besides the legislation that we will use to penalise what is taking place online, the groups involved in this are involved in organised crime. The legislation relating to organised crime from the Criminal Justice Act 2006 and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009 is especially useful. There are now more frequent charges for those we identify as suspects that relate to organised crime as distinct from the other specific crime that I mentioned earlier. Some crime is newer, such as that relating to what is referred to as Coco's Law. That legislation is especially useful in tackling offences related to cyberbullying. It was enacted in February. Investigations that are currently taking place will probably not yet have reached prosecution stage. That is useful legislation that we are preparing to use and about which training is being delivered to make sure that we implement the offences contained within it where relevant.