Watchdog concern at Revenue data access

THE Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has expressed serious concern over legislation giving the Revenue Commissioners power to access traffic details of people’s telephone, email and internet records.

The watchdog is concerned that under the Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2009, published yesterday, Revenue will be able to seek these details for a wide range of crimes, from smuggling to tax offences.

The DPC said given that the original reason for these powers – stemming from a European Union directive – was to combat international terrorism, it could not see why Revenue was being granted these powers, along with the Garda and the Defence Forces.