13 Oct Irish Government Moves to Change “Shameful” Data Retention Law
After a number of decisions that questioned the country’s data retention law, Ireland’s Department of Justice finally introduced proposals for a Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2017.
It is said that retired chief justice John Murray’s review of the data retention legislation was prompted by questions on the legal basis by which the Gsoc had obtained the call records of several journalists.
Justice Murray’s report seemed to arrive at the same conclusion about the law as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the validity of the EU Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC), which it had rejected.
Experts believe that even though the DoJ did not refer to the DRI case in its official media release, the proposals could be considered as the first “real steps” to changing the legislation which many considered to be a form of indiscriminate surveillance.
Source: Irish Times
