Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State put her finger on the importance of the motion. The exchange of Prüm data is an essential part of law enforcement and the criminal justice consequences of that in respect of detection and, ultimately, prosecution. It is a shame that as I understand it, next year will be the final date - 30 June - to which this can be extended and thereafter, extraordinarily, there will not be such as exchange of data between us and our nearest neighbour. There is no doubt that dealing with criminal offences and investigations will be more difficult after that date. It makes sense, therefore, that we would extend this for the greatest possible period. It would be cutting our nose off to spite our face to do anything else or allow this agreement to lapse on 30 September. It is exactly details like this that bring home to us how important connectivity with our neighbours is, not just in terms of criminal matters or investigations but in a range of other activities such as trade. We benefit enormously from our membership of the EU in that regard. We benefit enormously from what we bring together as a union of countries rather than as stand-alone states.

The fact that this comes under Protocol No. 21 and is subject to the provisions of Article 29 of the Constitution is another important recognition of the fact that at every step along our journey with the EU, in a healthy way, the State and body politic have referred to the people and the Oireachtas and brought questions to them to be decided instead of them only being done by the Executive, as happens in many other member states. This is one of the factors we can point to as to why there is such extraordinary and continuing support for our membership of the EU.

In respect of this motion, I agree entirely with what the Minister of State suggested in terms of the continuation. I am confident Senators will agree with that. It makes sense for us to continue to share this data so we can continue to the greatest extent to deal with criminal investigations in as effective and fruitful a way as we can. I am happy to have moved the motion and I hope it will pass.