Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The Minister has gone some distance to allay some of our fears on the matter. In the context of the annual report from the judge which, in the first instance, is given to the Taoiseach, what about an annual report on the complaints mechanism, that is, the referee established in section 59? Is there a similar requirement for that person to provide an annual report to the Taoiseach? Section 7 states that he should make a report of the referee's findings to the Taoiseach, although that is after investigating a matter. Have statistics been produced on the number and types of complaints along with the number which are vexatious and frivolous or is there a requirement to do so?

There will now be a requirement on a service provider of a fixed line or a mobile telephone to retain data. Where and how will that data be retained? I could access the Internet and use a fixed line 50 or 60 times in an evening to look for information on a number websites. We talk about the definition of electronic communications as being a fixed line or a mobile telephone, but what about a laptop computer with an in-built modem which has an internal system of telecommunications that does not seem to be covered by the Bill?

In terms of the bureaucracy required to store and retain information, has anybody envisaged how and where the information will be stored? What safeguards for safe storage will be in place? Earlier I instanced the case of firearms. The Minister has included a provision in the Criminal Justice Bill to ensure firearms are kept secure. Surely sensitive data such as this need to be kept equally secure even though it is electronic data. The mechanisms for doing so and the onus on the service provider should be set out in the legislation.

We must remember that most service providers are multinational companies. For example, Vodafone is a multinational company which not only covers this jurisdiction but also Britain, other European countries and countries outside Europe. Will the onus only be on the Irish section of that company? What about calls made abroad or which originate abroad? Although the calls will be billed abroad, the onus will be on the domestic wing of the service provider. It seems as if it will be a mess. It will be incredibly complex and bureaucratic. It seems the only way it could be done is in the European context but, as the Minister said, there are problems with the European Union coming to terms with it, I presume because there are problems with member states and the conditions in which they will allow the retention of this type of data, that is, the period of time and so on. Have discussions taken place with the service providers to determine whether they can do this? Is the Minister satisfied that sufficient safeguards exist to ensure the service providers do not abuse the storage of this sensitive material, which is now being entrusted to them?

Will the Minister explain section 61, which states: "Subject to subsections (2) and (4), the Garda Commissioner may request a service provider to retain, for a period of 3 years, traffic data or location data or both." Does this mean that when this Bill becomes law, the Garda will write to all service providers informing them that they must retain data for three years or will it be left to each individual case for the three-year period? Will it be a general request or will this be done on an individual basis? Can we take it that the Garda Commissioner will make no contact until a particular incident arises at which point the request is made?

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