THE IRISH authorities will be automatically told of any Irish people who are convicted in other EU states under a deal to be reached shortly. The Garda can now get information about criminal convictions under a 1959 Council of Europe agreement, but it must go in search of it.
The European Parliament and EU justice ministers are expected to finalise the information-sharing deal within weeks, and it will come into effect in three years’ time.
Once in place, Ireland will be told by other EU states about convictions of Irish citizens, and will notify them about the convictions of their citizens in Ireland.
Information will only be logged after all appeals are concluded, but details will not have to be deleted even if they are deleted in the country of conviction.
In Austria, for example, conviction details – as has been highlighted by the Josef Fritzl case – are deleted after 10 years.
“It is more and more common for people to receive criminal convictions outside their member state of nationality. Therefore, there is a need for each member state to have complete criminal record information, including information on convictions in other member states handed down against its nationals,” Minister of State for Justice Seán Power told an Oireachtas committee last week.
The information will be passed and received by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform from records compiled from the Court Service.
Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan said such information sharing was particularly important following the 2004 EU enlargement.
“A number of Romanians living in Kenmare identified for the police an individual there who had a serious criminal record in Romania.”
The Data Protection Commissioner has made suggestions about the drafting of the Irish rules that will govern the operation of the system.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is working on the feasibility of creating an index of non-EU citizens convicted in the EU.
The Irish authorities last year requested information in 19 cases about foreign convictions, while other EU states made 84 such requests to Ireland.
Criminal records are now entered into the Garda’s Pulse system, and the progress of a court case against an individual can be tracked from arrest onwards.
However, Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan raised questions about Pulse’s efficiency, asking if it could cope with extra information demands.
Details for the new system will be logged under common rules, including fingerprints, and national ID numbers were available. However, biometric information, which is included in new Irish passports, will not be shared with other member states.
Acknowledging that future improvements were possible, Mr Power said “there is no such thing as perfection” in any deal involving 27 states.
“Overall, it is a positive development in tackling crime. It is wonderful to see all member states of the European Union co-operating in this battle.”
