James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I seek Seanad approval to opt into a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and European Council on the collection and transfer of advance passenger information, API, for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime. This proposed regulation as it relates to law enforcement, is a key part of co-operation with other member states in the area of information exchange relating to terrorist offences and serious crime.

The proposed regulation aims to build on and improve the existing rules, in terms of the collection and transfer of API data. Today's motion follows on from the publication in December 2022 by the EU Commission of the two proposals for regulations, both regarding the collection and processing of API data relating to air travel. To provide some background, API refers to information contained in the machine-readable zone of a passenger's passport or travel document. This includes the name, date of birth, gender, nationality and document or passport number. API also includes flight information such as flight number and arrival and departure times. The first of the two proposed regulations is better known as the API border management regulation. This relates to the processing of API data for border management related purposes. However, Ireland does not need to opt into this proposal, as it is a Schengen building measure in which Ireland will automatically be participating.

The second proposal is known as the API law enforcement regulation and is the subject of today's motion. It relates to the processing of API data as part of the passenger name record, PNR, dataset for the purposes of the detection, prevention, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime. As the API law enforcement regulation has a Title V legal basis Ireland has until 6 May 2023 to notify the Presidency of the Council of the intention to opt into this measure under Article 3 of Protocol 21. To provide some contextual background to Senators, the Irish passenger information unit, IPIU, was established as a unit of the Department of Justice by the Minister for Justice under SI 177 of 2018, the European Union (Passenger Name Record Data) Regulations 2018. The IPIU is responsible for the collection and processing of passenger name record data related to the prevention and detection of terrorist offences or serious crime and for transferring the data to designated competent authorities. Schedule 3 to SI 177 of 2018 provides that a number of competent authorities are entitled to receive the results of the processing of PNR data, including An Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection.

Passenger name record data are the information collected by air carriers for their commercial purposes during the flight reservation process. As mentioned, the two recent Commission proposals in this area are interrelated. The proposed sister regulation, the API border management regulation establishes and legislates for a central router, which will be established and maintained by the relevant European agency, known as eu-LISA. The central router will transfer the data gathered in pursuance of the API law enforcement regulation to each member state. Under the proposed API law enforcement regulation being discussed today, air carriers will be mandated to use a central router to transfer API data to the passenger information unit of each member state. Mandating air carriers to transfer API data to a central router within the EU will streamline the overall process and will also reduce the cost on airlines as a central router will significantly reduce the number of separate connections to be maintained.

The fact that data will be collected and transmitted solely via automated means will improve accuracy, enhance data protection measures and will also increase the reliability of data analysis carried out by competent authorities. The combined use of API data and PNR data enables the competent national authorities to confirm the identity of passengers and significantly enhance national security measures.