Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 33:

In page 13, line 11, to delete "applicant" and substitute the following:

"applicant, and any other person whose interests are materially affected by the relevant contravention,".

Section 11 provides for complaints procedures where a person who believes he or she might be the subject of an authorisation can apply to the complaints referee. As currently drafted, section 11(4) allows the referee, following an investigation which concludes that a relevant contravention has taken place, to notify the applicant of that conclusion. This amendment extends the notification procedure to include any other person whose interests are materially affected by the relevant contravention. This ensures that collateral subjects, that is, persons who have been monitored in the course of the surveillance operation directed at another person, will be also notified by the referee where there has been a relevant contravention.

Section 11 also provides for situations where the complaints referee, following an investigation into a complaint, is of the opinion that it would not be in the public interest to inform the applicant that there has been a relevant contravention. It allows the referee to decline to notify the applicant in those circumstances. The amendment provides that, following an investigation which results in the conclusion there has been a relevant contravention, the referee can decline to notify the applicant or the other person of that conclusion if he is of the view that it would not be in the public interest to do so. Again, both amendments take into account European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence in this regard.

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