Mr. Liam Herrick:

It is a separate question but it identifies broader questions about our approach to privacy generally. A statutory body is in place with competence in this area but the Data Protection Commissioner's mandate is very broad and there are questions of resources. On the specific question of data retention, it seems the functions and expertise of the Data Protection Commissioner have been under-utilised. Even though we have a statutory body with competence in this area, we are not fully utilising it.

Deputy O'Callaghan spoke about the primary role of the Judiciary and he is absolutely right. However, while there are High Court judges in complex technical cases of this nature who have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with all the information on a case and develop expertise - and the Irish courts have dealt with some very complex cases in this area - there are also part-time judges with a heavy workload in other areas and no resources or support, who are asked to exercise a very complex and challenging oversight function in a technical area where the State has a huge amount of information. Perhaps the fact that we are one of only two countries in Europe which operate this system of oversight indicates that it is not fit for purpose, although this is no criticism of those who have had such functions in Ireland and who have exercised them very effectively within the limited confines of what they are asked to do.