Section 38 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 provides a legislative basis for the operation of CCTV systems in public places for the purposes of crime prevention and crime detection by the Garda Síochána and community based groups.
The Act does not apply to persons operating CCTV cameras on their premises for the purposes of protecting persons or property on the premises or environs.
As the Deputy is aware the main content of the newspaper article to which he refers is the misuse of private CCTV systems. Officials of my Department examined a possible amendment to the Non-Fatal Offences Act 1997 with a view to broadening the definition of harassment to make it an offence to video record or photograph persons without their knowledge in any place that a person could reasonably expect privacy.
Following the advice of the Attorney General I am now addressing this issue in the context of the Privacy Bill, which was published on 4 July 2006. The Bill creates an offence, to be known as the tort of invasion of privacy, for a person wilfully and without lawful authority to violate the privacy of another individual. Where material obtained from closed circuit television or other monitoring equipment may be used in an inappropriate manner then the aggrieved person will have an accessible remedy in law.
The Privacy Bill contains a defence (in Section 5) in a privacy action for a defendant to prove that the act in respect of which a privacy action is being brought consisted of the installation or operation, in good faith, of a closed circuit television system or other surveillance system for a purpose authorised by law, or for the purpose of detecting or preventing the commission of an offence or the protection of persons or property.
