On 26 June, the first inaugural meeting of the Irish EJN Contact Points took place in Dublin, Ireland.
Opening remarks were made by Ms. Antoinette Doran, Director of European Affairs at the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, and by Hugh Dockry, Head of the EJN Secretariat.
The Secretariat presented the EJN structure, projects and activities and delivered a demonstration of the EJN website and its tools.
In a roundtable, the Contact Points discussed their remit, including the range of assistance they should provide to the national authorities and the type of requests to deal with.
Otherwise, the Contact Points explored how to promote awareness of the EJN, recent developments in the criminal justice field, the state of play of the work done on the Irish part of the EJN website, the special projects the EJN is involved with including the 11th Round of Mutual Evaluations.
Last but not least, the participants received an introduction to the upcoming Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
On the same occasion, Hugh took the opportunity to meet with the Law School of the Law Society of Ireland and other academics to plan future courses on international cooperation in criminal matters.