Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

If gardaí search a house on foot of a warrant and discover evidence relevant to another case, they are entitled to seize it and act on foot of it. While I am not an expert on American law, I can say that the exclusionary rules there are very strict. While I do not know if it is still the case, it seemed to be upheld at federal and Supreme Court level that the use of a scanner from a road to monitor the heat in the attic spaces of houses, which gave an indication of a very hot attic in the house of a well known drug dealer giving rise to the inference that he was cultivating cannabis plants in the attic space, was held to be an unconstitutional violation of his rights in the United States. St. Andrew's House and St. Audoen's House may seem strict, but that seems very strict to me.