Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Despite media reports to the contrary, prior to today I had raised issues around surveillance 11 times during the lifetime of this Dáil. When I raised with the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, the question of whether GCHQ had tapped into a fibre optic cable off the coast of Wales, giving total access to Irish phone lines, I was met with blankness. There was no confirmation as to whether permission had been given for that to be done, whether there was any awareness of it or if anything had been done about it. There does not appear to be any interest in tackling this issue.

There is an onus on the State to provide the citizen with legal clarity and foreseeability. We do not get that. There must also be accessibility to any covert surveillance rules or policies in use. We are also not getting that. There is a requirement for real judicial supervision in this area. That the Minister believes that an annual one-day survey of this area is real judicial supervision does not stand up to scrutiny. It is not a rational argument. I do not know how the Minister can say that. We need a complete overhaul of supervision in this area. The privacy rights of citizens in Ireland are being interfered with in an unfair manner without proper scrutiny and oversight. That needs to change.

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