Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak to amendment No. 27. I understood the Minister to say that if this amendment were to be accepted, the situation, scheme, as it were, or system would be unworkable. I do not quite understand the Minister’s logic on that. Essentially, this amendment would require that any tracking would be required to be approved by a District Court judge instead of just a Garda sign-off. For ANPR to work, all number plate data is logged and, subsequently, that pool of data is checked against a watchlist of number plates of vehicles of interest. This Bill proposes the processing of all number plate data, then providing access to the number plate data that Garda are interested in. As I understand it, the Court of Justice of the European of Union has repeatedly warned that accessing targeted data out of vast masses or pools of data must only happen subject to judicial approval. I heard the Minister give her response and I suspect she has already given the response to this amendment. However, I am not clear on why making the requirement of District Court approval ab initiowould make it unworkable, if that is what the Minister is saying.