Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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314. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the number of disclosure requests that have been made to service providers by the Defence Forces in relation to section 6 of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011; and the number of disclosure requests per year since 2011 by service branch that made such requests. [41236/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 governs the retention of certain communications data and access to such data by the Defence Forces and certain other statutory bodies. 

Under the provision of Section 6(2) of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 an officer of the Permanent Defence Force not below the rank of Colonel may make a disclosure request to a service provider where the data is required for the purpose of safeguarding the security of the State.

I am informed by the military aithorities that during the period 2011 to 2019, the Defence Forces made applications for data requests as follows:

The figures for 2020 will be prepared at year end and are therefore not yet available.

All applications were made in respect to the relevant provisions of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 and all applications submitted pertained to matters relating to the security of the State.