In a statement on June 28, 2024, a spokesperson for Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive), Sinn Féin Poblachtach, condemned 26-County minister for justice Helen McEntee who obtained a High Court order on June 26 requiring communications service providers to retain certain data — including user, traffic and location data — for a period of 12 months “for the purpose of safeguarding the security of the State”.

The statement goes on: “This is the second such order for retention of such data, following an order granted in June 2023 at the time of commencement of relevant provisions following the amendment of the Act in 2022 to take account of rulings of the European Court of Justice.

“How can it be that you can turn up in the High Court on a Monday morning with some unknown bundle of papers and leave the High Court later that day with an order for mass surveillance of the entire Irish population.

“Back in June 2023, Dr TJ McIntyre, an associate professor at UCD Sutherland School of Law and chair of Digital Rights Ireland, said that the [Dublin] government’s failure to properly notify the European Commission during the legislative process represents a ‘fatal flaw’ in the Communications (Retention of Data) (Amendment) Act 2022.

“Dr McIntyre went on to say that there is a ‘lack of transparency in this whole procedure’, noting that the government’s decision to seek a High Court order was made ‘behind closed doors, without any consultation with the data protection commissioner, with civil society, or with the industry’ and with no detail on the supposed national security threat.

“Sinn Féin Poblachtach believes that Helen McEntee has taken a dose of inspiration from George Orwell’s novel 1984. A year on and nothing has changed. The dystopian Free State thought police are seeking power entirely for its own sake. They are not interested in the good of others just solely in power.

“If this wasn’t the case, why in a secret court overseen by an anonymous judge thus far gaining approval for mass surveillance of the Irish public.”

PRO,Comhairle Uladh,
Sinn Féin Poblachtach

CRÍOCH/ENDS

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