Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I will address the last point first. We are dealing with a situation that exists at the moment; nothing dramatically new is about to take place. Under this provision, the Garda Commissioner will be in a position to make a formal request to every service provider carrying out a volume of business of interest to the Garda. In those circumstances the service providers will be obliged to keep the data in accordance with the terms of the request.

As this is happening already, the prophecy of doom, gloom and mess are not valid.

See this speech in context