A call has been made by Independent TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace for a review of all legislation linked to surveillance and not just that involving journalists.
Ms Daly said there was a “certain double standard” in the outcry over GSOC accessing information of journalists’ phone records.
This was “entirely disproportionate” when “citizens have had their phone conversations in prisons with solicitors tapped into, that gardaí have been involved in such activity as well, largely unmonitored”.
She called on Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald to include the 2009 Surveillance Act and the 1993 Interception of Postal Packages and Telecommunications Messages Act in the review to be conducted by former chief justice John Murray.
She said “that has to be done in the interests of all citizens” and not just those of journalists.
Earlier, Taoiseach Enda Kenny expressed his “absolute confidence” in the chairwoman of the Garda Ombudsman Commission Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring, in the wake of revelations that the commission had viewed two journalists’ phone records without their knowledge or consent following complaints about reports on the death of model Katy French in 2007.
Ms Fitzgerald told the Dáil the 2011 Data Retention Act would be reviewed, but it would include the various bodies referenced in the Act who can access telephone records.
Data access
It was not just about GSOC, but about the access of An Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners and the Defence Forces, she said.
Ms Fitzgerald said the purpose of the 2011 Data Retention Act “is not to pry into the communications or privacy of individuals but it is to support the statutory agencies who are carrying out important work in investigating what has to be serious criminal offences.
“This clearly is a key factor in agreeing whether to give access to those records.”
Mr Wallace said that before GSOC could look at anyone’s phone they should have to go to court and so too should the Garda Síochána. “This idea that a garda can actually go to a superintendent or higher and get permission to interfere with someone’s communications facilities is just madness.”
Journalists’ role
Ms Fitzgerald said it was important that journalists should be able to carry out their legitimate work unhindered. She said she did not have any role in the requesting of telephone records and nor did she receive any information on this.
She said genuine concerns had been raised about the balance in the current law between important freedoms and the basic rights of persons not to have their personal information disclosed.
Ms Daly stressed that GSOC was involved in a criminal investigation into alleged Garda criminal activity.
“And it is a huge problem that gardaí are giving information to the press, information that is not often in the public interest but breaching the privacy of private citizens. It is very common but no action or accountability is taken.”
