Minister seeking to give gardaí ‘profoundly intrusive powers’, ICCL warns
By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association
The Justice Minister is seeking to give gardaí “profoundly intrusive powers”, a civil rights group has said.
Minister Jim O’Callaghan recently secured Government approval for legislation which would increase garda powers to intercept digital communications.
The Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL) said it has “very serious concerns about this shopping list of surveillance powers”.
The Communications (Interception and Lawful Access) Bill is designed to update legislation from 1993, and includes a new legal basis for the use of covert surveillance software as an alternative means of lawful interception.
It will provide for the use of electronic scanning equipment which can locate and record identifier data from mobile devices in specific areas.
With the general scheme of the bill unpublished, the ICCL said there are no details of the legislation to scrutinise.
However, it said a Government publication on the matter “suggests the minister wants to give An Garda Siochana profoundly intrusive powers”.
It said the powers seemingly include spyware surreptitiously installed on a device, technology to track all mobile phones switched on or off in an given area, access to encrypted digital communications, and interception of smart devices which could technically include speakers, doorbells, and watches.
Olga Cronin, ICCL surveillance and human rights senior policy officer, said: “These are surveillance tools and powers of extraordinary reach, with sweeping implications for people’s rights and freedoms and come in the context of An Garda Síochána already expanding their ‘eyes and ears’ via the Recording Devices Bill, which allows gardai to use body-worn cameras, access private CCTV on a live basis, and use drones and number plate recognition.
“There are also plans to introduce facial recognition technology and other powers to biometrically categorise and identify us.
“Once powers of this magnitude are normalised, the damage to rights and freedoms can be extremely difficult to reverse.”
The Department of Justice says the legislation is “vital for dealing with serious criminality and threats to the security of the State”.
The 1993 Act provides for the interception of postal packets and telecommunications messages for traditional landline and mobile communication.
The department considers this to be “outmoded” and says a new legal framework for all forms of digital communication is needed.
It points to a June 2025 roadmap from the EU Commission which which stated that terrorism, organised crime, online fraud, drug trafficking, child sexual abuse, online sexual extortion, ransomware and many other crimes all leave digital traces, adding that around 85 per cent of criminal investigations now rely on electronic evidence.
“This legislation is long overdue.
“There have been significant changes in the digital communications landscape in the last two decades that existing legislation does not comprehend.”
It said there will be “robust” legal safeguards including judicial authorisation of interception requests.
However, the ICCL said it is currently not possible to scrutinise the proposed safeguards as the general scheme of the bill has yet to be written.
Ms Cronin said: “We must also remember that measures introduced for exceptional or serious crimes tend, over time, to be used for much less serious crime because there is institutional pressure to use them more frequently.
“What was once exceptional becomes routine.”
Mr O’Callaghan said there was an “urgent need” for the legislation, pointing out the existing Act “predates the telecoms revolution of the last 20 years”.
“This legislation is long overdue.
“There have been significant changes in the digital communications landscape in the last two decades that existing legislation does not comprehend.”
