Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin will also be supporting the passage of this Bill today. Colleagues have succinctly outlined the vast potential of how this can impact in our lives. I have been a victim of online crime myself, in that someone treated themselves to a flight to Manchester and an overnight stay in a hotel on my credit card. How that happened I have no idea, but nevertheless it happened. Colleagues have touched on much more sinister and tragic outcomes from some of the people who are criminally active online, and we have seen this in the North in recent years, where young people have taken their own lives because they have been pushed to such extremes as a result of the manipulation, harassment, bullying and criminal activity being carried out by these people. While sometimes we can get caught up in the world of technology and we can switch ourselves off to just how vast and complex it is, this does have a very tangible negative impact on people's lives, day in and day out. It is right, proper and positive that governments are responding to that.

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive presentation he gave. It is very detailed. As Senator Conway has outlined, this is a very complex situation and one that we will no doubt have to adapt to and be fluid as we move forward. I have no doubt that we will work collaboratively in terms of the next Stages to try and refine this legislation together to deal with some of it.

I have some questions that I feel are important to have on the record. The law on cyber crime in Ireland is somewhat outdated, as the Minister of State has acknowledged, and contained in a range of legislative provisions. It is difficult to navigate across the Criminal Damage Act, the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act and the Criminal Justice Act 2011. The provisions of Acts dating from the early 1990s are rarely used because they are not fit for current prosecution needs. Clearly, given the nature of the technological developments over the last 15 years or so, there is a need to update and modernise laws pertaining to the protection of information and communication systems. Along with an update to the language and terminology relevant to offences in cyber crime there are a number of substantive offences introduced in this Bill, including the offence of hindering or interrupting an information system, denial of service offences, as well as the offence of providing the tools to commit denial of service offences. There are provisions for fines of up to €5,000 and 12 month prison sentences.

Sinn Féin broadly welcome the Bill and welcome this aspect of it, but we have some concerns regarding the provisions on search warrants. We wish to hear the Minister of State outline further if there are any protections for whistleblowers who might break the law or be perceived to have broken the law in the public interest.

While the Bill is to be welcomed it has to be said that there is little point in introducing more legislation and giving the Garda extra powers if it does not have the resources to investigate any breaches of this new law. It is not just about the correct training, which is important in terms of capacity building within the Garda , but we also need to resource the Garda to meet the demands that are there as a result of this criminal activity.

I am aware from the review of the computer crime investigation unit under the Garda Sióchána modernisation and renewal programme that a dedicated Garda cyber crime unit has recently been established, but there are no figures currently available for the level of resources actually attached to it. Perhaps the Minister of State can provide those figures, now or later. Saying that the allocation of resources is ongoing is not enough, for all of the reasons that Members have outlined today. I also wonder if the Minister would have an update on the intention to establish regional cyber crime units beyond the current pilot regions, when this will happen and what resources will be attached to them.

During last summer the Garda Commissioner, Nóirín O'Sullivan, said that the Garda would be introducing a new computer based system to track criminal complaints by the end of 2016. Can the Minister of State confirm that this has happened? Considering the number of Garda stations that have no Internet access - some do not even have access to PULSE - it seems unlikely that this could be the case.

These are practical issues that we hope to work on collaboratively with the Minister of State and other colleagues on Committee Stage to make this a better Bill in order to protect people.We have had many victims of cybercrime at many different levels. What we want to try to do with this legislation, and of course it is also the intention of the Minister of State and the Department, is to ensure fewer and, ultimately, no more victims.