94.— (1) The Ireland - US Treaty has the force of law in its application in relation to the State.

(2) Judicial notice shall be taken of the Treaty.

(3) For the purpose of giving full effect to the Treaty, the relevant provisions of this Act relating to requests for mutual legal assistance between the State and member states, including those relating to applications to courts or judges—

(a) to make orders to give effect to or enforce compliance with requests for such assistance, and

(b) to make, vary or discharge those orders,

have also effect, subject to the Treaty, in relation to requests for mutual legal assistance between the State and the United States of America, where necessary for that purpose and with the necessary modifications; in particular, for that purpose the reference in Article 16 bis 4 to money laundering and terrorist activity include, respectively, an offence under F93[Part 2 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010], and an offence under section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005.

(4) Section 7 (operation of joint investigation teams) of the Criminal Justice (Joint Investigation Teams) Act 2004 applies in relation to a joint investigation team established under Article 16 ter and operating in the State as if it were a joint investigation team established under that Act.

F94[(5) Article 7, in its application in relation to the use of personal data contained in evidence or information obtained under the Treaty by a person in the State, is without prejudice to the application of—

(a) subject to section 8 of the Act of 2018, section 7 (duty of care owed by data controllers and data processors) of the Act of 1988 in respect of the use of such data (within the meaning of the Act of 1988), and

(b) Part 5 of the Act of 2018, in respect of the use of such data (within the meaning of that Part).

(6) (a) Subject to section 8 of the Act of 2018, the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 apply in relation to personal data referred to in subsection (5)(a), in respects other than those related to their use.

(b) Part 5 of the Act of 2018 applies in relation to personal data referred to in subsection (5)(b), in respects other than those related to their use.]

(7) A court may consider—

(a) the Explanatory Note when interpreting any provision of the EU - US Agreement, and

(b) the Note and Agreement when interpreting any provision of the Treaty,

and give them such weight as is appropriate in the circumstances.

F95[(8) In this section—

"Act of 1988’ means the Data Protection Act 1988;

"Act of 2018" means the Data Protection Act 2018.]