Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The Bill defines surveillance as monitoring, observing, listening to or making a recording of persons, places or things by or with the assistance of surveillance devices. The reason "tracking device" is defined separately is because it involves a different type of surveillance. A tracking device is used only for the purpose of providing information on the location of a person, vehicle or thing. It is defined separately in order to distinguish it from other types of surveillance device because, by its nature, surveillance by a tracking device is less intrusive than that by other devices. As such, the approval procedure, rather than a judicial authorisation, is used to allow the use of the tracking device. The amendment proposed by the Deputy would lead to confusion and I cannot accept it. A tracking device is different from the other surveillance devices, which are used in particular to monitor activities. The latter could be used to listen to activities of individuals while the former is only used to show the location of a person.

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