Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 741: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on indications made by the US during the course of the EU-US informal high level meeting on freedom, security and justice on 2 and 3 March 2006 in Vienna, that it is considering approaching each member state to ensure that the data collected on the recently adopted directive on data retention be accessible to them; and if the US have approached the Government to make such a request; and, if so, the Government's response. [15326/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Directive 2006/24/EC of 15 March 2006, on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks, applies to the EU member states only.

At the EU-US informal high level meeting on freedom, security and justice held on 2 and 3 March 2006, the US indicated that it was considering approaching each member state to ensure that the data collected on the basis of the aforementioned directive be accessible to them. In response, the Presidency and the Commission stated that these data were accessible like any other data on the basis of the existing mutual legal assistance, MLA, agreements.

In line with this response, any request for access to specific retained data by any non-EU state would be considered in the context of the existing applicable MLA agreements. I am unaware of any specific approach by the US to confirm that the possibility of the use of MLA agreements is available in this jurisdiction.