Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In December 2014 the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, stated there was no question of mass surveillance being carried out in Ireland. She went on to say, when I raised the matter in the House, that the implications of the reports were that it was happening within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. However, she also said:

It is very clear that every country makes its own legal arrangements for lawful interception. I would expect [that any] such measures, if they were ever in operation, would have a proper legal basis and [that] the level of interference [would] be proportionate to the aims sought to be achieved, in any given country's legal approach.

In February 2015 the investigatory powers tribunal in the United Kingdom ruled that the large-scale interception and collection of the public's personal communications data by Government Communications Headquarters, GCHQ, in the United Kingdom and the National Security Agency, NSA, in the United States was illegal. Furthermore, it was illegal prior to Mr. Snowden's disclosure of the vast GCHQ and NSA mass surveillance programme. The two spying programmes under investigation were Prism and Upstream. Under the Upstream programme data were accessed in bulk using fibre-optic communications cables, including all major undersea cables carrying almost all communications between ordinary citizens in Ireland.

I asked the Minister multiple questions about this issue in January and June 2015 and she repeatedly gave the same answer, suggesting these were just media reports and that nothing unlawful was going on. She said the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, had received assurances from the United Kingdom that nothing was going on, even after GCHQ's oversight body had found it had been in breach of the law.

I, too, think that before GSOC can look at anyone's phone, it should have to go before a court. However, as we have argued before in this Chamber with the Minister and her predecessor, Deputy Alan Shatter, so too should the Garda. The idea that a garda can actually go to a superintendent or someone higher to obtain permission to interfere with someone's communications facilities is madness. It just does not work and the people of Ireland do not want it to happen. Journalists do not want it to happen and neither do citizens. We do not want our phones to be tapped and do not want to give anybody, including the Garda, the power to tap them without having to go before a court first. If there is criminal activity, it should be able to obtain a permit through the courts. The idea of a yearly review and rubber-stamping everything that went on is nonsense for everybody, including GSOC and the Garda.

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