Europol Act 2012

Interpretation.

1.— (1) In this Act—

“analysis” in relation to a sample of biological material, includes comparison and matching;

“Council Decision” means Council Decision 2009/371/JHA of 6 April 2009 establishing the European Police Office (Europol) * the text of which in the English language is, for convenience of reference, set out in the Schedule to this Act;

“criminal offence” means an offence for which Europol has competence in accordance with Article 4 of the Council Decision and includes related criminal offences;

“data” has the same meaning as it has in the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003;

“designated competent authority” shall be construed in accordance with section 2 (1);

“DNA” means deoxyribonucleic acid;

“DNA profile”, in relation to a person, means information comprising a set of identification characteristics of the non-coding part of DNA derived from an examination and analysis of a sample of biological material that is clearly identifiable as relating to the person and that is capable of comparison with similar information derived from an examination and analysis of another sample of biological material for the purpose of determining whether or not that other sample could relate to that person;

“Europol” means the European Police Office established under the Council Decision;

“Europol Information System” means the data processing system established and maintained by Europol under the Council Decision;

“Garda Commissioner” means the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána;

“head of the national unit” shall be construed in accordance with section 4 (4);

“liaison officer” means a person sent as a liaison officer with Europol under section 6 ;

“Minister” means the Minister for Justice and Equality;

“national unit” shall be construed in accordance with section 4 ;

“non-coding part of DNA”, in relation to a person, means the chromosome regions of a person’s DNA that are not known to provide for any functional properties of the person;

“personal data” has the same meaning as it has in the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003;

“processing”, in relation to data, has the same meaning as it has in the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003;

“revenue offence” means a criminal offence in connection with taxes, duties, customs or exchange control.

(2) A word or expression used in this Act and in the Council Decision has the same meaning in this Act as in that Decision.

* OJ L121, 15.5.2009, p.37