Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As has been said already, this is part of the continued outworking of Brexit. It was supposed to be a very simple extraction of a country from an economic union but after 40 years of integration at every level of activity, we can see how fundamentally difficult that extraction of one country has been. The resolution before us, that the Minister of State has proposed, is to opt in to a Council decision to extend the time period for exchanging important issues, DNA profiles, fingerprints and vehicle registration data, and to continue to allow for the European Union to do that with the UK. It is extremely important that this happens, and the facility to continue that is extraordinarily important. That is why we in this House will support the extension of the deadline.

The deadline is there because there is an evaluation ongoing of the trade and co-operation agreement we signed at the end of last year. I am not quite clear on what evaluation needs to be done in order for us to copper-fasten, in legal terms, the continued sharing of this vital data. The Minister of State might explain that. What in the TCA is required to copper-fasten this? One would imagine that would be upfront and clear. It is a cause of concern that this deadline can only be extended once. Once this resolution is passed in all the member states and the committee resolves to make the extension, we have until 30 June next to finalise matters because it will not be possible to roll over again. Whatever evaluation needs to be done and whatever conclusions there are from that evaluation must be very clear. The Minister of State has said she will bring such proposals back to the House.

As we said in respect of the Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Custodial Sentences) Bill 2021 last week, it took ten years for a 2009 directive to be transposed into Irish law. The alacrity with which these matters, that is, the transposition of EU regulations and directives, are dealt with, particularly in the Department of Justice, would not fill one with complete confidence. Of course, of much greater importance than the roll-over of an interim arrangement is knowing that a permanent arrangement will be in place, because above all member states Ireland needs an assurance that this level of judicial and police co-operation between the United Kingdom and our jurisdiction will continue. It would undermine proper policing and the detection of crime if there was any impediment to the sharing of profiles, fingerprints and vehicle data with the United Kingdom. I hope the Minister of State will be able to give us those very clear assurances.

The Minister of State will recall that last year we dealt with two omnibus Bills dealing with bilateral issues between Ireland and the United Kingdom across the board. Again, that was the outworking of Brexit. One would have thought that issues like this would have emerged during those debates. Of course, this Bill deals with the sharing of data with the United Kingdom across the European Union, not simply Ireland, but in the event of there being any delay in finalising the evaluation, as the Minister of State has called it, of the TCA between now and June and the agreement of a permanent measure to ensure that this level of co-operation we have enjoyed for some time continues into the future, that should be our priority. I would like to hear in very clear and unambiguous terms from the Minister of State that her proposals will be presented to this House well in advance of that deadline next June.

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