12F.— (1) The Minister may by regulations provide for any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.

(2) The Minister may by regulations provide for one or more of the following:

(a) the technical requirements to be met by a person who is obliged under this Act to retain or preserve data, including the requirements to be met so as to ensure that data so retained or preserved, when required under this Act to be disclosed—

(i) may be disclosed without delay, and

(ii) are of sufficient quality to be used for the purposes for which the disclosure is required;

(b) the criteria, which shall be objective and non-discriminatory, to which a person shall have regard when specifying a class or classes of Schedule 2 data by reference to a particular geographic area, which may include:

(i) the rate of crime in an area;

(ii) the number of persons normally present in the area;

(iii) the presence in the area of strategic infrastructure;

F65[(c) the procedures for making a requirement under section 6 or 6F and for making an application under section 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 7A, 7B, 7C or 7D.]

(3) Without prejudice to any provision of this Act, regulations under this section may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations.

(4) Every regulation made by the Minister under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House sits after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.]