Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

It is not agreed. I do not agree that some of the decisions contained in 16e should be referred to a committee without debate, namely, the Council framework decision on the protection of personal data, the framework decision on police and judicial co-operation on criminal matters or the Council decision on the stepping up of cross-border co-operation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime.

The data protection decision is not good enough either in terms of its content or the mechanism by which the Government is attempting to rush it through. Over the past number of years, countless EU measures mandating that sensitive personal data be made available to various agencies have been pushed through the Dáil with minimal scrutiny and in the absence of sufficient data protection in this State. The Data Protection Commissioner has already acknowledged that our domestic protections are insufficient and has called on the Oireachtas to deal with that issue. A full debate on that proposal is warranted and I oppose its referral to committee without debate on that basis.

In the context of the framework decision on the protection of personal data, the fourth motion states that we should maintain and share a national DNA database. Again, I am not opposed to the setting up of a DNA database but, as legislators, we have not had a proper debate on the issue and the fundamental concepts behind it have not been teased out in the Chamber. The standards are being set for us by EU pressure and that is why the proposal should be rejected until such time as there is a proper debate in the House.

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