Dr. T.J. McIntyre:

I agree with the recommendations of Mr. Justice Murray. In fact, I think that has to be folded into a wider look at surveillance oversight in Ireland generally. The designated judge here is dealing with just one of three statutory regimes. We have data retention, that is, access to communications data; we have interception, access to the content of communications; and we have the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009, which pertains to the planting of bugs or tracking devices on cars. We have a separate designated judge who deals with the 2009 Act. We also have the designated judge under this legislation who will deal with data retention and interception. If we are going to professionalise the role, I think it would be desirable to fold them into a single oversight body to look at the oversight of surveillance generally and avoid situations where matters might fall through the cracks between the two different sets of judges. Within that, we could have the security and monitoring function that Deputy Wallace mentions.