Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will add my voice to those of my colleagues who have spoken in support of the European arrest warrant and the necessity for it. We have all said on many occasions here previously we need whatever tools are necessary from the point of dealing with the wide level of international criminality at this point in time.

The Minister of State and I have spoken about drug gangs many times. Obviously, at this point in time the Minister of State is thinking about human traffickers and many others way beyond that. In dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are also dealing with what is a criminal state with a number of criminal subcontractors or oligarchs who sometimes put their business-criminal resources at the benefit of the Kremlin. There will be interesting research in the next while as to what exactly happened in the Brexit vote and from where some of the funny money, for want of a better term, came. That is why it is difficult at present, particularly coming from where I do, to listen to the outworkings of what could be this Nationality and Borders Bill in the UK and how we could be looking at a British Government imposing an unworkable hard border for non-Irish and non-British people on the island of Ireland. This is utterly unacceptable and needs to be dealt with. Not only do we need to ensure, together with our international partners, that this is fought tooth and nail but we need to look at whether there are any legal mechanisms. Not only is it abhorrent, it is ridiculous. It would not be the first time that a British Government instigated an action that was in breach of international law.

Deputy Kenny brought up some issues and when one is talking about a European arrest warrant, it needs to be enacted within this State in a timely fashion. It does not make sense that the forces of law and order would lie on something for a particular period. I accept there may be difficulties from time to time in apprehending someone - people understand that - but justice has to be swift. We need that to happen.

Also, in some of these scenarios, one is talking about a four-month custodial sentence. That is not necessarily what one would consider a serious crime. It depends. As Deputy Ó Laoghaire stated, we do not necessarily have an equality of law and order throughout even the European Union. We all have spoken here many times previously on the rule of law issues, particularly in Poland and Hungary. While we are in a different place now and those countries are involved in dealing with a significant humanitarian catastrophe, the fact is that if we are talking about the future of the European Union and about a Union that wants to open itself up and that Ukraine and others are looking to join, it must be a European Union that is about justice, rights and equality. Therefore, the law, European arrest warrants and everything else must fit within that framework. It is absolutely necessary. That is the sort of Europe that we want and which is completely anathema to what we are seeing coming from Russia at present.

There is a significant piece of work to be done regarding due diligence on some of the subfactors within this legislation. That must be done as soon as possible. Beyond that, it is a necessary piece of work. We are constantly trying to catch up with two things, namely, transposing EU directives and laws and from a legalistic or cyberworld point of view in terms of where international criminality is at and ensuring that we have all the tools that are necessary to address it. Within that framework, we must also look at the weaknesses that exist in social media, especially in the likes of Facebook. We have all heard what Frances Haugen has said about algorithms that pick up on Punch and Judy and on what are far greater evils that exist in society. People are able to use it and weaponise it. Connected networks are also something that we will have to get a handle on to deal with all the ills and woes that exist across the world at this point.

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