Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 25:

In page 22, line 35, to delete “Part” and substitute “Act”.

The amendment will extend the definition of "high-risk vendor measure" to the rest of the Bill.

I introduced amendment No. 26 following concerns on Committee Stage about transparency. It will require the Minister to specify, in the high-risk vendor notice, that he or she considers it necessary to take the measures contained in the order to control risks to the security of electronic communications networks or electronic communications services that may affect national security, and if he or she considers that prior consultation could affect national security, to specify the reasons for this.

Amendment No. 27, in the name of Deputy McNamara, will not be necessary because of amendment No. 26, which is intended to serve the purpose, whereby the Minister will have to specify in the high-risk vendor notice that he or she considers it necessary to take the measures contained in the order to control risks to the security of electronic communications networks or electronic communications services that may affect national security, and where the Minister considers consultation would be contrary to the interests of national security, to specify the reasons this is so.

Neither will I accept amendment No. 28, because there will be occasions when it will be necessary, in the interests of national security, for a provider to which a high-risk vendor notice applies to maintain the existence or contents of the order as confidential whereby disclosure of the order could be contrary to the interests of national security. The importance of section 26 is underpinned by subsection (2), which sets out criminal sanctions for a provider found guilty of failing to comply with this requirement.

I will not accept amendment No. 29 because it is often the case it is not possible for myriad reasons to consult a vendor, including where the vendor is based in another jurisdiction, which may complicate contacting the vendor. The components could be open source components where it is not clear who the natural person or body corporate making the components are, or the vendor could simply no longer exist and, therefore, it would be disproportionate to remove the safeguard of "make reasonable efforts to", leading to the imposition of an administrative burden to have this requirement in place, preventing the Minister from taking the required measures.

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