Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will be supporting this opt-in. We understand where it is coming from and the necessity around all of that. It is one of the more unforeseen impacts of Brexit. Last week, we had the Bill on mutual recognition of sentences, which is further Brexit-related legislation. Many of these legislative reforms on which we now have to embark are due to what happened with Brexit and it shines a light on the huge body of work across Europe and the huge co-operation across so many jurisdictions across the Continent on criminal justice and how all of that had been evolved and developed over a number of decades. Now we find, with our nearest neighbour pulling out, that it puts us in a very difficult position.

We all understand we have to try to get these arrangements in place as quickly as possible but I am disappointed we are coming to this one at such a late hour. This legislation has to be enacted before 30 September and it is disappointing it has not been moved on faster.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission pointed out in its 2019 paper, Evolving Justice Arrangements Post-Brexit, that this was an issue that needed to be dealt with back then so it is remiss of the Department not to have spotted this and done something about it an awful lot sooner. That said, there is a lot of work going on dealing with various jurisdictions across Europe with regard to criminal justice. It is quite ironic that the UK was the largest user of some of the crime databases administered by the EU and now finds itself outside of that. I hope it is time for pause and reflection on the part of the people in the British Administration who have brought us to this unfortunate situation. Brexit has torn up so many good and worthy pieces of legislation which were about trying to ensure we protected our citizens and keeping people safe across very fluid borders. Those very fluid borders will still be there, or we hope they will, particularly the one on this island. We hope we will not return to anything like border posts or checkpoints because of the situation that the Tories in Britain have brought us to.

That said, there are still issues regarding co-operation across European states with various police and criminal justice authorities. I have come across situations where families of loved ones who had incidents abroad have found it very difficult to get information from the other authorities, particularly in Spain, Portugal and other countries like that where incidents occur. They have found it very difficult to get information across. They have been working with the Garda, which does its best as well, but the anecdotal reports coming back indicate that the Garda also finds it difficult in some situations. Some jurisdictions in Europe are magnificent and others are not. That is something that needs to be dealt with. Perhaps it cannot be dealt with in this arena but it must be dealt with somewhere to ensure that citizens of Europe who are victims of crime and who may have experienced a tragedy can have access to information from the countries where those crime investigations are being undertaken. So far, that is not happening to the extent that it needs to. It would be very disappointing if we had a situation in which DNA profiles, fingerprints or any of that kind of basic data that is required were somehow refused to be shared or were not put in the domain of criminal justice investigations trying to link things together. I am thinking, in particular, of the huge drug gangs that now operate across Europe and the world, how they have continued to operate, the work they continue to do and how difficult it is to track them because of the various borders, jurisdictions and laws that are in place. We need to make sure we can keep on top of all of that.

This legislation is very worthy and must be brought forward as quickly as possible, as the Minister of State has said. However, I suggest that in her closing remarks she indicate why we are coming to it so late in the day. Why has this not been dealt with sooner? It is quite alarming that we are trying to deal with this in the 59th minute of the eleventh hour. That should not be the case. It should be dealt with. This should have been brought before the House last spring and dealt with and got out of the way, rather than coming here in September and having to deal with this on such a short deadline.

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