Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The designated judge has issued the same identical two-page report since 2014 with only the year and date changed. That is no reflection on the judge, this is the system, and it leaves a lot to be desired. There is zero detail in it. How can the Minister have confidence in the designated judge system after the March 2014 audit by the Data Protection Commissioner discovered that gardaí were systemically rubber-stamping requests for telephone data after the fact, a practice that is in clear breach of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2010 and something which the designated judge has obviously seriously failed to detect? Dr. T. J. McIntyre from Digital Rights Ireland has pointed out that the Irish oversight system is out of line with international practice. He said that in almost all EU member states there are parliamentary committees which can oversee surveillance by security agencies. Ireland is one of only four EU member states which does not make its security agency accountable to Parliament, instead on security matters the Garda Commissioner answers only to the justice Minister who also has the decision to tap phones in the first place.

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