Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2022-07-13
============================================================

Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

It may be down to how I am interpreting it, but I am concerned that there is an element of pre-emption in the powers being granted under the Bill, even in the case of minor offences. The section refers to suspicion. It is not even a court order. It seems pre-emptive and that it could be used in respect of minor offences. My fear is that it dips over into the idea of powers of surveillance in terms of the Revenue Commissioners and the Garda having access to user data on suspicion of an offence having been committed, rather than an offence actually having been committed.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-07-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-07-13