Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 July 2022
644. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice if her attention or that of her predecessors and or that of her Department officials has been drawn to the use of spyware by An Garda Síochána as part of domestic and national security investigations. [38827/22]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that authorisations for the interception of communications and surveillance are made under the provisions of the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages (Regulation) Act 1993 and the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009.
Interception is governed by the provisions of the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages (Regulation) Act 1993 under which the Minister for Justice may authorise bodies designated under the Act to intercept communications but only for the purposes of investigating serious crime or safeguarding the security of the State, as provided for in the Act, and only subject to a number of strict conditions that are also set out in the Act.
Surveillance is governed by the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009. Under section 5 of the Act, a district court judge may authorise bodies designated under that Act to carry out surveillance for the purposes of the investigation and prevention of arrestable offences and maintaining the security of the State. Section 7 of the 2009 Act provides that a member or officer of a body designated under the Act may carry out surveillance without an authorisation in cases of urgency and subject to strict conditions. Section 8 of the 2009 Act provides for the use of a tracking device where approved by a superior officer of a designated body, and subject to strict conditions.
As the Deputy may be aware, the operation of both Acts is overseen independently by serving Judges of the High Court who are designated by the Government for this purpose and report to the Taoiseach. In carrying out their functions, the Designated Judges have, by law, full access to all persons and records they consider relevant and all relevant persons have, by law, a duty to co-operate.
In addition, both Acts provide for a serving judge of the Circuit Court to act as the Complaints Referee. The Complaints Referee is empowered to receive and investigate complaints from persons who believe that their communications have been intercepted or that they might be the subject of surveillance. In carrying out her functions, the Referee has, by law, full access to all persons and records she considers relevant to her investigations and all relevant persons have, by law, a duty to co-operate with her.
