Irish Council for Civil Liberties calls for safeguards in mandatory location forms

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said there were concerns around issues like data protection.

The Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Liam Herrick has called for safeguards to be put in place for the introduction of the mandatory passenger locator form.

While it was reasonable to introduce regulations of this type, he said, there were concerns around issues like data protection.

Mr Herrick told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that there are lot of concerns about the control of personal information by the HSE and that it would be helpful to have more details about how it will operate in practice.

There may be a limited number of scenarios where a person may not be in a position to fill out the form, he added, for example if the person were claiming international protection when they arrived.

Mr Herrick said there was particular concern about criminal sanctions and it was felt that this was an inappropriate area for the Gardaí to be involved.

More clarification would be helpful, he said.

From today, passengers arriving into Ireland from overseas will be required to complete a Covid-19 Passenger Locator Form.

Under new regulations, signed by the Minister for Health, failure to complete the form will be an offence.