Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A Councillor D'Arcy from the village of Fore on the far side of Castlepollard told me that the Data Protection Commissioner ruled against Dublin City Council for making video recordings of illegal dumping at a site. The images were very clear and the council published them on the Internet in order to try to locate the people involved. There was quite a large response and the people were identified but the Data Protection Commissioner took a case to say the council was in breach of these people's privacy. If somebody is acting illegally and committing an offence against the State, he or she should not be protected by the Data Protection Commissioner. This is an area in our legislation that will have to be considered. Everybody is entitled to his or her privacy if he or she is abiding by the law of the State but if he or she acts outside that law and to the State's detriment, he or she should not be protected by privacy legislation. I have strong views on this and I oppose the findings of the Data Protection Commissioner. I would appreciate if the Leader would invite the relevant Minister to the House in order that we might discuss this matter and inform him or our ire. I think I would have support in the House on this. We could see if the Minister would talk to the Data Protection Commissioner about it.