Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I am not asking about the operation of the Act. I am asking him to give some advice or opinion on whether it is normal that 10,000 requests were made by the Garda Síochána in respect of accessing telephone records in 2006. The Minister told the House that the Act would be strictly controlled and limited to the investigation of serious crime. Many law-abiding citizens will be taken aback to hear that on 10,000 occasions it was necessary to invoke the Act in order to combat serious crime and suspected terrorist offences.

Regarding the point made by the Ceann Comhairle about the designated judge, whose independence and probity the Taoiseach has commented on and which I accept, the only report laid before the Houses was a result of parliamentary questions. The designated judge had not laid a report until the parliamentary questions were tabled. The report relates to the Army accessing telephone records. There is no report for the Garda Síochána accessing this number of records. Many people would be surprised to know the Army is accessing these records.

I refer to the remarks of the assistant data protection commissioner, who stated that perfectly innocent people are having their private records pored over.

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