Some time ago, Karlin Lillington of the Irish Times linked to details of a secret Council of Ministers questionnaire. This was drawn up in advance of any data retention legislation being in place, in November 2002.
It is interesting in its entirety, but I’d particularly draw people’s attention to question 5 and the Irish Government’s answer.
Questionnaire 5: Have you received any reports from your law enforcement authorities that have indicated an obstruction of their work due to the non-existence of appropriate legal instruments concerning traffic data retention?
No.
So why, exactly, was it needed?
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[…] It is close to a month since DRI wrote to the Ministers for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to seek undertakings that the gentlemen in question would “cease breaching the Constitutional, statutory and European rights of the citizens of Ireland???. As recently pointed out on Tuppenceworth.ie, when the Government was asked by Brussels whether the Garda had encountered circumstances during the investigations of criminal activity which justified recourse to such a draconian assault on civil rights, the answer which came back was a rather sheepish, er, “No???. […]