11.— (1) The national unit and liaison officers may input, access and retrieve data from the Europol Information System for the purpose of preventing and combating organised crime, terrorism and other forms of serious crime in accordance with the Council Decision.

(2) The designated competent authorities may query the Europol Information System, but only for the purpose of determining whether the data requested are available in the Europol Information System.

(3) Where a query under subsection (2) determines that the data requested are available in the Europol Information System, the designated competent authority which made the query shall request the national unit to obtain the data.

(4) The Minister shall, by notice in writing, inform the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union of the competent authorities in the State designated for the purposes of this section.