Carol Nolan on EU data-sharing, PROOM and public safety
Carol Nolan spoke on international law-enforcement cooperation, focusing on EU cross-border data-sharing mechanisms such as PROOM and the Schengen Information System (SIS), and welcomed their role in preventing and investigating crime. She urged robust data protection and verifiability safeguards and called for improved national data-sharing, citing the Shane O'Farrell case as a tragic example.
Main points
Carol Nolan outlined how PROOM decisions and EU Council measures create a framework for cross-border police cooperation. She highlighted the benefit of comparing DNA and fingerprints from a crime scene in one Member State with data held in others, and welcomed that identity information may only be exchanged once a match is confirmed.
Recent SIS result
She noted a recent case in which the Gardaí apprehended a person wanted in France for financing Islamic terrorism, who had been living in Ireland undetected for almost a decade. Nolan said that arrest occurred as a direct result of Ireland joining the EU's Schengen Information System, SIS, in March and argued that such data sharing produces real public-safety results when data protection and verifiability safeguards are observed.
National data-sharing failures
Nolan warned that cross-border systems must be complemented by effective national data-sharing. She cited the Shane O'Farrell case, saying information about warrants was not shared and suggesting more effective data sharing might have prevented his death and spared his mother further suffering.
Policy implications
She argued that crime respects no borders and that it is right to use country-by-country cooperation to bring offenders to justice. Nolan balanced support for EU data tools with a call for strict data protection and verifiability standards, and for reforms to national information-sharing practices.
Closing remarks
She ended her address by thanking Justice.
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on such an important issue here this evening in terms of international cooperation between law enforcement agencies. Indeed, we know that the so-called PROOM decisions and various other EU Council decisions establish a framework for cross-border police cooperation to support the prevention and indeed the investigation of crime. As the EU Government, among others, has noted, one of the main benefits of PROOM for law enforcement is the ability to compare DNA and fingerprints found at a crime scene in one Member State with data held in other Member States to see if there is a match. Information revealing the identity of a possible suspect can only be exchanged once a match has been confirmed, and that is to be welcomed. In a related issue, we saw only last week how the Gardaí were able to apprehend a person wanted in France for financing Islamic terrorism, who has been living here in Ireland for undetected for almost a decade. As we know, this person's arrest only happened as a direct result of Ireland joining the EU's Schengen Information System, SIS, in March. This is the kind of data sharing exercise that brings about real results in terms of public safety, once the usual caveats around data protection and verifiability are in place. Could I just add that there are also issues that still need addressing nationally in terms of data sharing. We saw, for instance, the terrible failures in the Shane O'Farrell case, where information was not shared about the warrants out for a man who would go on to kill Shane. If we had more effective data sharing, Shane's death may have been avoided, as his killer would have been locked up and his mother's broken heart may still be in one piece. Crime has no respect for borders. It is only just and right, then, that we utilise all the resources of country-by-country cooperation to do all that we can to bring those guilty of crimes to justice. We thank you to Justice.
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