Judge’s opinion backs Dwyer data claim

A report by a former chief justice John Murray supports Graham Dwyer’s claim that Ireland’s data retention legislation breaches European laws, the High Court has heard.

Remy Farrell, counsel for Dwyer, told Mr Justice Tony O’Connor that in a report published last year, the retired chief justice said that the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 amounts to mass surveillance of the entire population of the State and was contrary to EU legislation.

Counsel said while the contents of the report, commissioned in 2016 in the wake of allegations journalists’ records were wrongfully accessed by GSOC, are the opinion of a now retired judge, they do tie into Dwyer’s complaints about Ireland’s indiscriminate data retention regime.