Danny Healy-Rae: Make Electronic Evidence Mandatory to Tackle Drug Gangs
Danny Healy-Rae welcomes a bill to allow law enforcement to request electronic evidence from service providers to speed up criminal investigations into organised drug crime.
Healy-Rae supports measures to apprehend drug lords who are causing mayhem in families, while warning the bill must include wider international cooperation and adequate funding.
Danny Healy-Rae addresses the introduction of legislation designed to ensure electronic evidence needed for criminal investigations can be requested from service providers. He argues that timely access to such evidence is vital to apprehend organised criminals and protect families affected by drug-related harm.
Healy-Rae describes the damage drug gangs are causing in rural villages, towns and cities, including suicides and family breakdown. He stresses that the Garda are doing important work but that better access to electronic evidence will improve investigations and outcomes for communities.
Healy-Rae asks whether the cooperation envisaged by the bill extends beyond Europe, urging broader international arrangements. He also raises specific worries about coastal exposure and gaps in local monitoring, particularly in parts of Kerry, where he says drug shipments can arrive under cover of night.
The speaker welcomes the legal measures but questions the adequacy of the funding allocated so far, noting a 73,000 allocation for pay costs in 2026 and a 3 million capital allocation for an IT system to connect to the EU decentralised network. He calls for clarity on total implementation and running costs to ensure the system is effective.
Healy-Rae supports measures to apprehend drug lords who are causing mayhem in families, while warning the bill must include wider international cooperation and adequate funding.
Bill summary
Danny Healy-Rae addresses the introduction of legislation designed to ensure electronic evidence needed for criminal investigations can be requested from service providers. He argues that timely access to such evidence is vital to apprehend organised criminals and protect families affected by drug-related harm.
Rural and family impact
Healy-Rae describes the damage drug gangs are causing in rural villages, towns and cities, including suicides and family breakdown. He stresses that the Garda are doing important work but that better access to electronic evidence will improve investigations and outcomes for communities.
International cooperation and coastal concern
Healy-Rae asks whether the cooperation envisaged by the bill extends beyond Europe, urging broader international arrangements. He also raises specific worries about coastal exposure and gaps in local monitoring, particularly in parts of Kerry, where he says drug shipments can arrive under cover of night.
Costs and implementation
The speaker welcomes the legal measures but questions the adequacy of the funding allocated so far, noting a 73,000 allocation for pay costs in 2026 and a 3 million capital allocation for an IT system to connect to the EU decentralised network. He calls for clarity on total implementation and running costs to ensure the system is effective.
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Transcript
I'm glad to get the opportunity, and first of all I want to welcome the introduction of this bill which will ensure that electronic evidence needed for criminal investigations can be requested by law enforcement from service providers and I suppose what I'm thinking about, Comhairle, is the apprehension of the drug lords that are ruining our society, causing so much mayhem in families and we see youngsters committing suicide and the disruption of families and like I said the mayhem that it causes, it's terrible and any way that we can apprehend these people and rapidly, I support that Minister because it has completely ruined our societies it's happening in the most rural places, rural villages, towns, and then of course our cities and the effect that it's having on family life is desperate and anyway, I suppose I'm asking myself questions here in relation to international cooperation is this only with Europe, our countries who are in the European jurisdiction because it needs to go further than that we need to have the same cooperation with countries outside of the European Union because we know, and every one of us know here and further out from here that they're coming from every part of the world and my worry, I said it to you here before Minister, is our exposure along our coast because in many places, even in Kerry, we don't have guard stations now and I worry and a lot of people worry that there's drugs coming in along the shore at night when they know there's nobody monitoring or know what's going on and we need to have more surveillance for that reason alone and that is a very important reason the existing means to get electronic evidence needed for criminal investigation we know are slow and complex and depends on the good will of service providers when we're in the vein of apprehending criminals we shouldn't be impeded in any way it shouldn't be down to good will that they give the evidence or not it should be mandatory that they give it and it's only right I'm just talking about drugs and the desperate situation that we have in our country at the present time and we know the Guardia are doing very good work in apprehending big amounts of drugs but that will only tell you the amounts that are getting through and the disruption and the harm that they're doing to our youngsters it's terrible more and more cases depend on electronic evidence so any improvements in this process is welcome if it ensures criminal investigations can be progressed in a timely manner so my concerns however would be to the total cost of implementing this and running it each year so far I see the financial implications are a budget of 73,000 has been allocated for pay costs in 2026 I don't think in the cost that we have today with all the things that's a minimal amount of funding I don't know how that can be effective or adequate and then the 3 million capital expenditure has also been allocated for the building of an IT system necessary to connect to the EU decentralized IT system I must make way for my colleague Carol Nolan