James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There may be some confusion over what focused monitoring is and what An Garda Síochána can do to monitor movement of vehicles using automatic number plate recognition. To start, ANPR is already widely used by An Garda Síochána for roads policing and this Bill will not change that. The provisions of this section and section 19 are expanding Garda use of ANPR to include focused monitoring. Focused monitoring, monitoring the movements of a particular vehicle, can only happen if a vehicle, the subject of the focused monitoring application and approval, passes a camera that is ANPR enabled. These could be Garda-operated ANPR cameras or the ANPR cameras from the three bodies listed in the Bill. As the Minister highlighted on Committee Stage, focused monitoring can only be used for very limited purposes, specifically in investigations relating to arrestable offences which are offences that have a term of imprisonment of five years or more, and for matters relating to national security. An example of this would be where An Garda Síochána wants to monitor the movements of a vehicle associated with a rural burglary gang.

Three months is considered a reasonable maximum timeframe for this type of internal approval, particularly considering the approving officer will be a superintendent or higher rank and will be independent of the investigation or matter for which the application is being made. This part of the Bill is not only governed by a code of practice but is also subject to oversight by a High Court judge. This means the High Court judge will have oversight of the operation of focused monitoring by An Garda Síochána. I should also point out that focused monitoring beyond three months is the subject of judicial authorisation and will not be automatic.

There are a number of safeguards included in this section, notwithstanding the code and the oversight by a High Court judge. These include, and I have already referenced the majority of safeguards, that a superintendent or higher ranked officer can only approve the application where he or she believes on reasonable grounds that the vehicle in question is connected to an investigation relating to an arrestable offence or matters relating to the security of the State, and he or she is satisfied that the focused monitoring is necessary and proportionate with regard to the purpose of the investigation.

In respect of amendments Nos. 18 and 19, to remove the "or" and to delete "under section 19" will not achieve the desired effect that Senators Ruane and Flynn intend, namely, to ensure that focused monitoring is only authorised by a judge of the District Court. The wording of that section would no longer be clear. If I look to amendment No. 21 in conjunction with amendments Nos. 18 and 19, the proposed amendments would allow for internal approval, subject to authorisation of a judge. However, the variation of the internal approval, which is under subsection (5), would be permitted as well. This would make the provisions unworkable as it would not be clear whether an approval varied would in fact be permissible if a judge has provided the original authorisation and not the variation under subsection (5).

Amendments Nos. 20, 22 and 23 proposed by Senators Keogan and Mullen also look to replace the internal approval mechanism for focused monitoring to require an authorisation from a judge in order to monitor the movements of a vehicle. Again, the provisions would be unworkable. Subsections (1) and (3) would then permit focused monitoring via internal approval and subsection (2) would state that only the judge could approve focused monitoring if he or she were independent of the investigation of the offence. It is unclear as to what the intention of subsection (2) is in this regard. It is my firm belief that focused monitoring approved internally and subject to the aforementioned safeguards for up to three months before judicial authorisation is required is both a balanced and a reasonable approach. For those reasons, I cannot accept the amendments.