Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

——notwithstanding some of the difficulties that have emerged in the Morris tribunal. There are specific provisions in the framework decision to deal with some of these issues.

Regarding data protection, Article 9 specifies the existing norms and standards which member states must observe. These include the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data of 28 January 1981.

Article 10 deals with confidentiality. It requires competent law enforcement authorities to take due account of the requirements of investigative secrecy and in accordance with their national law to guarantee the confidentiality of all provided information and intelligence determined as confidential.

Deputy Jim O'Keeffe went on to make a number of points on his own legislation and the Frank Connolly case, but the important point to make about these particular provisions is that Ireland has a good record in this regard, has a long history of involvement with Europol and Interpol, and also has in place a range of bilaterals which have worked particularly well.

See this speech in context