Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I will seek further advice from the Attorney General on that point. The purpose of the provision is to give effect to Articles 18.6 and 18.7 of the convention of 2000 and the provision is included to give Ireland the option of making a notification to the European Union at the time of ratification that we are unable to provide for immediate interception and transmission of telecommunications to EU member states. In that event, Ireland would be obliged to intercept, record and transmit a recording of the telecommunications to the requesting member state if we would make an interception in a similar domestic context. This will be done when the information provided in Articles 18.3 and 18.4 of the convention is provided by the requesting state.

The information relates to issues such as from whom the request is received, the conduct being investigated, the desired duration of the interception and so forth. The possibility of making the declaration is provided for in Article 18.7. That is a safeguard and it enables Ireland to review the capacity of the telecommunications systems we have in operation prior to ratification.

The Senator is making a different point, which is that by making provision for that option in paragraph (4), we are in some sense allowing the law to be changed by the executive arm of the State in an unconstitutional way. I do not wish to respond to that issue off the top of my head. I will consider the matter between now and Report Stage.