Mr. Andrew Munro:

The European delegated prosecutor would be a qualified prosecutor and would have all the functions and competences of a national prosecutor. This is a challenge also in that the office holder would have to have in law the competence and powers of the Director of Public Prosecutions or equivalent to the DPP. This is what is meant by the term "two-hatted", that at the one time the person would be a prosecutor in terms of Irish law in this case and a prosecutor in terms of being part of the European Public Prosecutors Office, but in terms of the control in running any EU fraud case, the delegated prosecutor would be under the supervision and control of the European Public Prosecutor's office. The delegated prosecutors would not operate as independent entities or members of a college, they would be under the control of the European Public Prosecutor. The proposal under this regulation envisages that in certain cases the European Public Prosecutor, the central authority, would act directly in national courts. By the proposals under this regulation they would have to be conferred with the power to prosecute in an Irish court. It is not clear in what circumstances this would apply but perhaps in cases relating to European officials or such like, they might be taken on directly by the European Public Prosecutor, so that those appointed would potentially appear on the ground and ask that such a suspect would be interviewed or a search warrant sought and executed and direct that a prosecution would be brought against a person. There is inner control from the European Public Prosecutor's office, in that it envisages generally decentralisation to the extent that the European delegated prosecutor in the member state would probably be an Irish prosecutor with two hats but would be under the direction and control of the European Public Prosecutor.