Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, I am sorry to inform the Senator that I will not be accepting the amendments. Our obligation is to transpose each and every article of an EU Council decision that is relevant from a domestic perspective. Section 5 gives effect to Article 7, paragraph 1, of the Council decision which states, "Member States shall deal with any request by Europol to initiate an investigation...". Therefore, under the Council decision, there is an obligation to accept a request for the initiation of criminal investigations. However, we must also look at section 7 which sets out the actions to be taken following a request from Europol to initiate an investigation. Paragraph (1)(b) provides that the competent authority, that is, the Garda Síochána or the relevant office of the Revenue Commissioners, shall decide whether to comply with the request. In effect, the decision on whether an investigation should be initiated is made on a case by case basis and the relevant authorities in this State may refuse any such request as per the section.

In that context the Senator?s proposed amendments are not relevant.

In order to comply with the Council decision, while we must accept all requests from Europol there is no obligation to comply with them. I am refusing the amendment on the basis that the amendment to section 5 would undermine our compliance with the Council decision. The provisions of section 7 are such that in any event there is no obligation on the State to comply with a request once received. For that reason amendment No. 5 is not necessary.