Results 6,581-6,600 of 15,389 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: These amendments are technical. They provide for consequential changes to a number of other enactments arising from the new section 3A, covering non-fatal strangulation or non-fatal suffocation offences, and section 4A, which covers non-fatal strangulation or non-fatal suffocation causing serious harm offences. The effect of these is essentially to extend existing provisions, which are...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: The Mental Health Review Board is a quasi-judicial body responsible for the review of the detention of patients in the Central Mental Hospital. Currently, Schedule 1(1) of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 outlines the requirements of the membership of the board. There must be a chairperson and such number of ordinary members as determined by the Minister in consultation with the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: This is the final group of amendments. They are amendments to the Communication (Retention of Data) Act 2011 to correct drafting and cross-referencing issues in the amending Act that was passed last year. Under the 2022 Act, applications for data must be approved by a judge. They are made on an ex parte basis with the relevant agency present, for example, An Garda Síochána. They...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: As the committee is aware, the Bill will deliver on two important commitments in the programme for Government. It will implement the recommendations of the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland which called for the use of body-worn cameras to enhance front-line policing capabilities. It will also extend An Garda Síochána's use of CCTV and automatic number...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: It will be Parts 2, 5 and 7. The Bill deals with two things, namely, the recording of information and then the processing of that information. While it is implied in all the sections that processing would be needed, it is not explicitly referenced. We will be referencing the processing of the information in all the different sections of the Bill.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: It is how they process the information, how they store it and how it is altered. It is how they gain access to the information they have through the CCTV footage plus the ANPR, the body-worn cameras and the various different means.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: It is implied, but we just want to make sure there is no ambiguity that processing is part of it. It goes into detail in each section. We want to ensure there is no ambiguity that in each area where information is gathered there is also an element of processing to it.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: Processing of or in relation to data, including personal data, means an operation or a set of operations that are performed on the data or set of data whether by automated means or not. It is the collection, recording, organisation, structuring and storage of the data. It also means altering the data so if somebody has, for example, three minutes of footage, he or she may want to reduce it...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: It is the same amendment for every one of these changes; it is just a question of making the changes to the various sections of the Bill, as I have just outlined.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: We did not think the change was needed, but the legal advice is that we should put it into every section in order to ensure that the position is absolutely clear.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: It is an issue around drafting and having it just in time for today. As I read out, that is exactly what we are talking about in the context of inserting these amendments. It does not change the application of each section at all; it is just to have it expressly included.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: I should probably have just read it out in my opening statement because it is exactly what is in each section.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: That is just what I have done.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: That statement replicated what I said earlier. These amendments came in at the last minute.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: I absolutely assure the Deputy that these are just technical amendments. They replicate in all sections what is in one section. There is absolutely no doubt that that applies to everywhere we say we are gathering data, whether it is by means of the drones, on CCTV or on body-worn cameras, where there has to be an element of processing. We cannot gather the data without being able to...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: It is already in Part 3. We are talking about replicating that in Parts, 2, 5 and 7.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Jul 2023)

Helen McEntee: Because of language used, namely, "with a view to using biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying one or more individuals", I feel that this would be better placed in the legislation relating to facial recognition technology that will be brought forward in the new term.