Results 7,561-7,580 of 15,536 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Citizenship Applications (7 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: My Department opened the once-in-a generation scheme for the Regularisation of Long Term Undocumented Migrants in the State on 31 January 2022 for a six month period. The scheme is designed, following detailed engagement with the people affected, to give long-term undocumented people without a current immigration permission the chance to regularise their status, access the labour market and...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Citizenship Applications (7 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: The application for the person referred to by the Deputy was received by the Undocumented Unit of my Department on 20 February 2022 and continues to be processed. Applications to the scheme are submitted online and once the appropriate fee is paid the online system acknowledges the application. Due to the large number of applications on hand it is not possible to provide a definitive...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Citizenship Applications (7 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy that the updated scorecards are expected to issue shortly and will be uploaded to my Department's immigration website (www.irishimmigration.ie). The scorecard was introduced to help applicants to complete their applications with greater certainty than before. Since the go-live of the scorecards, my officials inform me that there has not been any reduction in...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Crime Prevention (7 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy is aware, Ireland has become a more diverse and welcoming country in recent decades. I strongly condemn the actions of the small minority of people who subject others to abuse or attack resulting from their own prejudice. These types of attacks cannot, and will not, be tolerated. On 16 April 2021, I published the General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Hatred and...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (11 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: I am pleased to introduce the Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022 to the House. The purpose of the Bill is to make certain priority amendments to the current Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011, referred to in this Bill as the principal Act. To comply with rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the principal Act provides for the general and...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (11 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: I thank all Senators for their contributions. I will start with the last point and reassure Senators that this is not about mass surveillance or retaining data for indiscriminate purposes. From our point of view, what this Bill does is reduce the amount of data that can be retained in comparison with what is currently the case. It increases the number of safeguards of judicial oversight...

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: The motion is another example of Sinn Féin speaking out of both sides of its mouth. It criticises the Government but wastes valuable time with a charade of a motion that was never going to succeed, using its time to criticise the Government with no clear direction of its own insight. Its only purpose is to cause a pointless drama and an unwelcome distraction when there are so many...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: I assure the Deputy that this is an issue we are prioritising. We had a budget of €2 billion for An Garda Síochána last year. A significant amount of that went to increase Garda numbers. Templemore college has reopened. We have had three attestations this year already and from September and October we will have 200 gardaí coming out of Templemore every 12 weeks....

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: I thank Senator Ward. The Senator made many of my responses and clarified them. From the outset, we have not defined either "security of the State" or "threat to the security of the State" anywhere. If one thinks of the most recent legislation, the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act, which we re-enacted only in the past few weeks, in that there is no clear definition of "security...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: It would have to be decided by a judge in order to be able to retain those particular data, namely, the Schedule 2 data. A judge would have to decide on that.

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: It will. I stress that what we have proposed here in terms of this emergency legislation reduces the amount of data that can be retained and puts additional safeguards in place that do not exist in the principal Act. There are more safeguards here. Specifically, when it comes to a threat or security, the type of data that now we are able to retain is still on a very restricted basis with...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: Let me get into some of the detail. First, on amendment No. 4, the recent ruling and the 2020 ruling essentially state user data were not classified as serious in that they do not show the traffic or location details. Retention and access to these data can be justified by the objective of dealing with criminal offences in general. There is no requirement for a specific time-limited...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: Yes. It is in relation to time and not the actual data or case. It is the time itself overall for the data. The provision will apply to all general data irrespective of whether they are for a specific case or reason. It is the timeline we are referring to here.

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: It depends on which the Senator is referring to. The general data are not viewed as impeding on somebody’s rights in the same way as Schedule 2 data. When talking about what is strictly necessary, we are referring to the time limit, not the potential crime or the reason for it.

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: It does, but it does not give where a person is at a particular time or where he or she might have been. As with a given name and address, it does not necessarily tell anything more than one’s IP address. It is no different from having knowledge of a person’s name. In the case that brought a lot of this about, it was the location data that made the significant difference. We...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: One still has to set out the reason-----

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: -----one was looking for it. It is there, but one cannot just access it for no reason. The 12 months is because it is not seen as being as significant as accessing someone’s location.

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: The court said that it does not feel this infringes in the same way so it included all user data, which includes what the Senator outlined, as not being as significant in terms of impeding. All of this is about whether retaining this type of data, Schedule 2 data or Internet data would create a greater impediment on someone’s privacy or right to privacy. However, the court ruled both...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: It is a similar argument to the previous one. It is a question of what the court has ruled and what categories it has deemed general data to fall under. Specifically, the court concluded that the interference entailed by the retention of user data cannot be classified as "serious". That is what it set out in the ruling. It went on to state that legislative measures concerning the...

Seanad: Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2022)

Helen McEntee: For general data, it can be just a criminal offence. It does not have to be a serious offence. That is on the basis that the court has ruled that, for the purposes of the detection, prevention or prosecution of crime, general data is not seen in the same way as Schedule 2 data, which is a person's location information. The latter is seen as impinging much more on a person's right to...