Ms Clare Daly:

The Senator's points are very good. The purpose of the Bill is to balance police effectiveness with protection of fundamental rights and getting the balance right is important. Some of the powers we are talking about are new and, obviously, we do not have data on those. The search warrant power being given to gardaí is a fundamental point. This has been considered previously, almost ten years ago, by the Law Reform Commission. At that time, it thought there was no need for this. It asked whether there could be a technological solution. We now know that technological solution is already here. We have judges well-used to working with technology during the pandemic and they have always been open to being woken up in the middle of the night in an urgent situation. No urgent situation could ever happen in which a judge could not be contacted by technology. That can be absolutely provided for.