9.— (1) Without prejudice to section 100 , the Director of Public Prosecutions, Commissioner of the Garda Síochána or Revenue Commissioners (in this section referred to as the “providing authority”) may, in accordance with the relevant international instrument and without receiving a request to that effect, communicate information to a competent authority in a designated state either relating to matters which might give rise to such a request or for the purpose of current criminal investigations or criminal proceedings or of initiating either of them.

(2) The providing authority may impose conditions on the use by the competent authority of the information so communicated.

(3) Subsection (2) does not apply in relation to the competent authority of a designated state which has made a declaration under paragraph 4 of Article 11 of the Second Additional Protocol unless, as required by such a declaration, the authority has received prior notice of the nature of the information to be communicated and has agreed to its being communicated.

(4) Any conditions imposed by a competent authority in a designated state on the use of information communicated by it to the providing authority shall be complied with pursuant to the relevant international instrument.

(5) In this section references to a competent authority in a designated state are references to the authority in such a state appearing to the providing authority to be the appropriate authority for receiving or communicating the information concerned.