Clare Daly
Question:326. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of court orders made to tap and-or monitor text and call traffic per year, over the past five years. [35924/14]
View answerTuesday, 23 September 2014
Questions (326)
Written answers
I wish to advise the Deputy that the Courts have no function where these matters are concerned.
The lawful interception of both telecommunications and post is statutorily governed by the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages (Regulation) Act 1993. The 1993 Act provides that only the Minister for Justice and Equality may grant authorisations to intercept and then only for the purposes of the investigation of serious crime or in the interests of the security of the State. Only the Garda Commissioner and the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces are entitled to make applications for authorisations to intercept. The Garda Commissioner may make applications in relation to serious crime or in the interests of the security of the State. The Chief of Staff may make applications in relation to the security of the State only, and such a request must be accompanied by the supporting recommendation of the Minister for Defence.
The 2011 Communications (Retention of Data) Act provides for access to traffic data, location data and subscriber data only. The Act sets out the agencies which are entitled to request access to this data and the circumstances in which such requests can be made. Those circumstances include the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of a serious offence, the security of the State, the saving of human life and certain revenue offences. The content of calls, texts etc are not disclosed under this Act.
Both statutory schemes are subject to judicial oversight. Both the 1993 and 2011 Acts provide for the appointment of a High Court Judge to carry out reviews of their operation and the relevant reports to An Taoiseach are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. In addition, the Acts provide for a procedure whereby a member of the public who believes their communications have been intercepted or that their personal data has been accessed (whichever the case may be) may make a complaint to a Complaints Referee. The current Complaints Referee is a judge of the Circuit Court.