Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this very important Bill. In recent years, we have heard much talk about the impact of globalisation on world commerce, finance and food production. However, the phenomenon of globalisation is also very pertinent in the world of crime. Recent weeks have seen a number of high-profile cases involving jewellery theft and Internet fraud. Irish people deserve to be protected from unscrupulous criminals irrespective of where they operate.

I welcome a number of the Bill's provisions in particular. The Bill gives effect in Irish law to an agreement between the European Union and both Norway and Iceland, and it contains significant technical amendments on the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 and the extradition Acts. The technical amendments contained in the Bill give welcome clarity regarding procedures involved in both the procurement and enforcement of an arrest warrant and extradition procedures. For example, the requirement that a court must be satisfied that a person sought is not in the State is being removed, making it easier for Ireland to issue warrants on future dates. The Bill refers to judgments in abstentia and the conditions that must be met when the court is considering a request for surrender where a person was tried in his or her absence.

A rise in the incidence of international crime, such as Internet crime, results in the need for greater clarity on the extradition legislation. Methods need to be updated, including to take cognisance of modern methods of document transmission.

I welcome the power for An Garda Síochána to take fingerprints and palm prints, and to photograph a person's arrest under the Act. Amendments to this Bill also provide, for the first time, for the admission in evidence without further proof of material in this regard if it is received from a country requesting extradition.

In recent days, there has been some media coverage of the prospect of a cashless society. While it is anticipated that this would make certain crimes, such as bank robberies, less attractive, it may change the way such robberies are carried out, with greater emphasis being placed on moving sums of money online and introducing heretofore unimagined access to money. Apart from reducing the opportunities for such crimes, we, as legislators, must ensure anybody involved in crime, be it online or on the street, will face the full rigour of the law. We must strive to ensure every possible barrier to law enforcement is removed.

It is worth noting that, at a time when much of the commentary in Ireland surrounding Europe appears to be negative and highlights the strictures that EU membership brings, EU law enforcement is one of the major benefits of the painstaking process of capacity building within the Union. Imagine a scenario in which international agreements were not in place or in which Ireland had to negotiate arrests and extraditions with other countries on an individual basis, as opposed to enjoying the fruits of the labours of its fellow members in the Union. Such scenarios would offer huge benefits to the international criminal as Irish police would have neither the capacity nor the resources necessary to conduct an international trawl for mobile criminals crossing jurisdictions and language barriers. EU membership brings with it significant benefits, just one of which is the ability of police forces across the Continent to work under shared international agreements with a view to thwarting the efforts of imaginative and innovative criminals.

I welcome the provisions of the Bill, which are timely and sensible and which make the job of law enforcement easier, be it through the enforcement of arrest warrants or a more streamlined extradition process.

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