Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am not deciding it. I am not even offering an opinion on what the outcome of the case in the courts should be. I am simply stating what anyone can read on RTÉ's website, that the matter is being looked at and that there is an allegation which was written about widely in the newspapers at the weekend that Mr. Denis O'Brien and his representative in that company inappropriately accessed journalists' information and their sources, possibly including barristers and so on who were involved in the Moriarty tribunal, possibly including politicians and other sources. That matter is being investigated. Whether he is guilty will be adjudicated on by the courts. I am simply pointing out that that level of control and wealth gives people that access. Will the legislation we are bringing forward to protect data, in this case emails, if people are found guilty of the very serious charges levelled against Mr. Denis O'Brien, result in the police being sent for or will there be administrative sanctions? That is important because there is a parallel system of justice when it comes to these matters. It works in financial areas where, if someone is found guilty of engaging in white collar crime, the Central Bank imposes administrative sanctions and the person concerned is then immune from criminal sanctions. Will this legislation ensure people who are found guilty will be jailed, if, for example, as in this case, the courts adjudicate that there was illegal access of journalists' data? Will the police be sent in or will there be administrative sanctions? I want people who turn out to be guilty of committing that kind of crime, not just in this case but any case, to go to jail. They are doing exactly the same as someone who breaks into a house and burgles it. It should be treated as a criminal offence. There should not be two laws, whereby there are administrative sanctions for the corporate or financial sector or the owners of big digital corporations who have a lot of information on us and inappropriately allow our emails to be given to others, without our permission. They should be jailed. There should be dawn raids to arrest them. They should be subject to the same criminal sanctions as those guilty of common or garden criminal actions or theft. I would like to see legislation that would ensure that would happen.

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