NEW POWERS to carry out surveillance should require a judge’s authorisation, the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has said.
The Garda ombudsman’s office should also be given power to carry out special surveillance, the commission added.
The rights body has made a number of recommendations on the Surveillance Bill, currently before the Oireachtas.
The commission has responsibility, under statute, of making observations to the Government of the compliance of proposed legislation with international human rights law.
In its observations on the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Bill, published yesterday, it welcomed the placing of surveillance powers on a statutory footing.
Dr Maurice Manning, president of the commission, welcomed the Bill and said that fundamental safeguards such as the requirement for judicial authorisation for surveillance had been included in most cases.
However, he said that further essential safeguards are required to ensure that the 2009 Bill fully complies with constitutional and international human rights law.
“The IHRC has concerns relating to the definition of surveillance, the use of tracking devices, the supervisory and complaints mechanisms and the exclusion of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission from surveillance powers,” he said.
Éamonn Mac Aodha, the commission’s chief executive, pointed out that the Bill would be considered in detail by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights in the coming weeks.
He urged them to ensure that human rights protections were strengthened, and specifically to require the relevant authorities to give the supervising High Court judge a report on the operation of their surveillance activities on a regular basis.
A mechanism should be put in place to inform a person subject to unlawful surveillance of its occurrence, so that they could make a complaint and access any further causes of action or remedy available to them under the legislation.
Not granting surveillance powers to the Garda ombudsman to investigate alleged arrestable offences may limit its capacity to investigate such offences by An Garda Síochána in an effective manner, according to the IHRC, which called for surveillance powers to be extended to the Garda Ombudsman Commission.
The definition of surveillance should be extended to include the targeted, ongoing and repeated photographing of people for the purposes of monitoring and/or recording their movements, activities and communications, it said.