Report: Judges should rule on accessing data

Specialist judges or a dedicated tribunal must first grant authorisation to any request from a state agency to access the communication data of people, says the Murray report.

In relation to journalists, the judge should be a High Court judge, the former chief justice says in his 190-page report.

Mr Justice John Murray said an EU court ruling last December “sweeps the ground” from the mass surveillance system in Ireland — and that it “may no longer be lawful” to compel service providers to retain indiscriminately private communication data.