Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Senator Norris clearly does not understand the history of the agreement, which was given substantial examination by European justice ministers and within the European Parliament. The form of the agreement that is before the House is the text as agreed by the Parliament and by the European Council in its justice configuration. The report to which the Senator referred was rejected by the European Parliament's Libor ROUCEK group. In fact, he is relying on a report which the majority of Members of the European Parliament did not accept.

The agreement includes a substantial range of provisions necessary to protect the rights of those who travel. It puts in place an important co-operative architecture between the European Union and the United States which will be to the benefit of tens of millions of people in both jurisdictions. The Senator seems to consider it an esoteric or theoretical provision. I have already mentioned the example of its use in the case of David Headley. Another instance of the use of passenger name records is the case of Faisal Shahzad, who attempted a car bombing in Times Square in New York in May 2010. The FBI, in co-ordination with the Department of Homeland Security, learned of his identity from a mobile telephone number recorded in his PNR data. Based on the PNR match, the Department of Homeland Security's travel lookouts alerted law enforcement to his attempted outbound flight. He confessed and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 21 June 2010.