National Member

Tricia Harkin was appointed National Member for Ireland in September 2022. Ms Harkin is a qualified Solicitor and has 20 years’ operational and policy experience as a Prosecutor in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of Ireland (Office of the DPP). She has worked on prosecution decisions for all types of crime and on trials in the Irish courts at first instance (summary and jury trials) and at appeal stage. She has also worked in the Office of the DPP on international judicial cooperation, judicial review, prosecution policy and research and has been a member of the management board of the Office. From 2010 to 2014, Ms Harkin was seconded to the European Commission, DG Justice, working in the unit dealing with criminal procedural law. She has been the Irish representative to the Council of Europe’s Consultative Council of European Prosecutors from 2020 to 2022. Since 2018, she has been a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on EU Criminal Policy. Ms Harkin completed an MA in EU Law at King’s College London in 2020.

Deputy National Member

Lynda Mullin was appointed Deputy National Member for Ireland in September 2022. Ms Mullin is an experienced prosecutor from the Office of the DPP in Ireland, who has worked for over two decades on a wide variety of complex criminal cases including human trafficking, serious organised crime and financial fraud.

Ms Mullin has extensive expertise in relation to EU Directive 2012/29EU (on the rights of victims of crime to protection, information and participation in the criminal process) and has worked with, and for, victims of crime, as a founding member of Ireland's first prosecutor-led Victim's Liaison Unit in the Office of the DPP, leading on areas as diverse as legislative engagement, policy, training and operational roll-out of Ireland's transposition of the EU directive.

Ms Mullin holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) specialising in International law and a Masters in criminal Justice. She holds a diploma in forensic psychology and a higher diploma in public management.

Role of the national authorities

Eurojust facilitates judicial cooperation between home authorities and contacts with the Irish Desk are via the relevant Irish national investigation, prosecution and government authorities, who will seek Eurojust assistance where they deem it is required. Contact should therefore be made with the national authorities in respect of queries in relation to investigation or prosecution matters. The main Irish competent national authorities are An Garda Síochána, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Central Authority for Mutual Assistance in the Department of Justice.