Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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1306. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the timeline of her Department’s plan to publish a general scheme of a Bill on cybercrime to meet Ireland’s commitment to ratifying the Council of Europe Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. [20876/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, I have recently published Justice Plan 2022, which sets out 159 actions to continue building a justice system that works for everyone.  Action 22 of the Justice Plan refers to the publication of the General Scheme of a Bill to update certain provisions linked to the Budapest Convention on cybercrime, as well as specific access to data requests (if not dealt with in the Communications (Retention of Data) Bill).  The Justice Plan commits to delivering this action in Q2 of 2022. 

Cooperation with our EU and international partners remains a key part of Ireland's response to cybercrime. Ireland is committed to ratifying the Council of Europe Budapest Convention on Cybercrime when the necessary legislative requirements have been fulfilled. In this regard, the Deputy may wish to note that the Criminal Justice (Offences Relating to Information Systems) Act 2017 already provides a comprehensive legal framework for the prosecution of cybercrime offences.

As the Deputy will appreciate, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the detection of and response to any criminal activity, including cybercrime, is an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner. As Minister, I have no direct role in these matters.