Law GSOC used in phone records row ‘flawed’ warns legal experts

Legal experts have warned that the law relied on by the Garda Ombudsman in the row over access to telephone records is flawed and could cast doubts over the legitimacy of investigations that used information about calls.

The warning comes weeks before Mr Justice John Murray is due to report to government on his independent review of the legislation.

In an assessment of the same legislation, Shane Kilcommins and Eimear Spain of the School of Law at University of Limerick said the way that the law — specifically a 2011 Act — has been interpreted as giving powers to GSOC to access phone records “raises a number of concerns”.