Vol. 554 No. 5
1389 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if EU Governments are negotiating an agreement whereby records of all telephone, e-mail, internet and fax traffic must be stored by telecommunications companies and made available to law agencies in any EU country; and if he is concerned about the privacy rights of Irish citizens. [16513/02]
I am aware that there have been rumours recently in certain parts of the European press of imminent EU rules on the retention of telecommunications data and access to such data.
The situation is that, in June 2002, the Danish presidency tabled a proposal for Council conclusions on information-technology related measures concerning the investigation and prosecution of organised crime. The proposal that was made available on the Council website – ue.eu.int – in July 2002, contains a request that, in the near future, binding rules should be established on the approximation of member states' rules on the obligation of telecommunications services providers to keep information concerning telecommunications in order to ensure that such information is available when it is of significance for a criminal investigation. The proposal contains no detailed indications as to what the contents of such rules should be but emphasises that such rules must be established taking account of the requirements regarding privacy and the processing of personal data which stem from the European Convention on Human Rights of 4 November 1950, the Council of Europe Convention of 28 January 1981 for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data and Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. The proposal is currently under consideration in the relevant Council expert group and is unlikely to be ready for adoption in the near future. There are no further proposals in relation to retention of traffic data along the lines set out in the Deputy's question and I understand that the Danish Presidency is not engaged in drafting any such proposals.
