Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

372. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current status of Ireland’s ratification of the Budapest Convention on cybercrime; if he will provide a timeline for when ratification is expected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23160/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I can assure the Deputy that Ireland remains fully committed to ratification of the Council of Europe ‘Budapest’ Convention on Cybercrime.

The Convention is divided into three main sections: criminalisation of listed offences; measures for the gathering of evidence in relation to the listed offences and from computer systems generally; and international cooperation.

A significant number of requirements of the Convention have already been met by the Criminal Justice (Offences Relating to Information Systems) Act 2017. The remaining articles of the Convention will be addressed by two legislative projects that are currently underway.

The Criminal Justice (Protection, Preservation of and Access to Data on Information Systems) Bill aims to give effect to most of the outstanding provisions of the Budapest Convention. The relevant provisions of that the Bill will provide for the expansion of Ireland’s regime of "preservation orders" and "production orders", whereby Irish law enforcement authorities will be able to request access, through a court, to data being held on IT systems controlled by Irish-based internet service providers. The General Scheme of the Bill was approved by the Government on 6 February 2024, and has completed pre-legislative scrutiny. It is intended that the Bill will be published later this year.

Four further articles of the Convention relating to interception powers will be addressed in a separate Bill following a review of Ireland’s current interception legislation. This review is a priority project for the Department in 2025. The four remaining articles are Articles 20, 21, 33 and 34, which concern real-time collection of traffic data, interception of content data and the mutual legal assistance provisions related to these two aspects.