Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank her for coming in personally to give her response to this. I also thank Senator Reilly for sharing time with me.

It is amazing that we have a situation in which mass surveillance is taking place on telecommunications from this State. Like Senator Reilly, I am amazed that there seems to be no concern about another government surveying everything that goes out of this country. If the Garda Síochána or the Irish Defence Forces was doing it, or the Minister's Department was sanctioning the surveillance of Irish citizens - any one citizen or a journalist - there would be outcry and outrage, and we would hear about it all day every day. There are 6 million people on this island and every communication that is going out of this country, as we understand it, is being monitored, scrutinised and is under surveillance. For the life of me, I cannot understand why, when it is on this scale, there is nothing, not even a whisper, in response. It is perhaps part of a post-colonial stress disorder which we may be suffering that the thought of a revelation by a whistleblower, Edward Snowden, which was revealed in the German newspapers, created nothing in terms of outcry by the entire population, and not only by the population, the media did not seem to be concerned about it. I am certain that if the Irish State was surveying the same citizens, there would be an outcry. For some reason, because it is a foreign entity, it seems to be acceptable.

I am also concerned that some operators, cable and wireless, are getting millions of pounds in compensation because of this programme with the Government Communications Headquarters in Britain. They are profiteering from this. Vodafone and other commercial entities, under legislation, have to co-operate. Yet, there is no right of appeal and we do not know what they are being asked to hand over. I am concerned and I would like to hear the Minister's response on this, because it is blanket surveillance. The argument will be made that we have a friendly neighbour. Friendly neighbours do not spy on each other.

On a different matter, I thank the Minister for taking the issue of the hooded men to the European court. This is an issue that is of equal relevance today as it was when it was taken nearly 40 years ago. The ruling of Europe on the hooded men was used as a justification for torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. That decision in Europe has to be reversed. Only Ireland can do it. I hope the Minister succeeds in that regard because there are innocent people, now and in the future, relying on the Minister succeeding in that case.