56.— (1) Where a person is before a court charged with an offence, a copy of any recording of the questioning of the person by a member of the Garda Síochána while he or she was detained in a Garda Síochána station, or such questioning elsewhere, in connection with the investigation of the offence shall be given to the person or his or her legal representative only if the court so directs and subject to such conditions (if any) as the court may specify.

(2) A recording referred to in subsection (1) of the questioning of a person shall not be given to the person by the Garda Síochána except in accordance with a direction or order of a court made under that subsection or otherwise and Regulation 16 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 (Electronic Recording of Interviews) Regulations 1997 (S.I. No. 74 of 1997) is hereby revoked.

(3) In this section—

“recording” means a recording on tape of—

(a) an oral communication, statement or utterance, or

(b) a series of visual images which, when reproduced on tape, appear as a moving picture,

or both;

“tape” includes—

(a) a disc, magnetic tape, soundtrack or other device in which sounds or signals may be embodied for the purpose of being reproduced (with or without the aid of some other instrument) in audible form, and

(b) a film, disc, magnetic tape or other device in which visual images may be embodied for the purpose of being reproduced (with or without the aid of some other instrument) in visual form.