Government welcomes security watchdog's recommendations on surveillance

George Birmingham - Independent Examiner of Security Legislation

The Government has welcomed recommendations from the State’s security watchdog that garda and oversight agencies need to have legal safeguards in place when considering surveillance of lawyers, journalists or politicians.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin also backed the intention of the Independent Examiner of Security Legislation to carry out a scoping review of Ireland’s law on espionage, given the “antiquity” of the laws and the “significant evolution” of the espionage situation.

Mr Martin made the comments in an official Government response to a series of recommendations made by the Independent Examiner, George Birmingham, in his annual report, published last April.

Mr Birmingham, a former High Court judge, is the country’s first oversight body for security legislation and security services.

The establishment of his office was part of linked recommendations made by the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, which reported in September 2018. This called for a revitalisation and restructuring of Irish security infrastructure, including a new oversight body.

In his report, Mr Birmingham said he had informed security, police, and oversight agencies that they need to have systems in place to ensure that any surveillance of lawyers, journalists, or politicians is “appropriate and proportionate”.

He said he took this step following the publication of an inquiry in the North into the controversy surrounding surveillance of journalists and lawyers by the PSNI.

The McCullough Review, published in September 2025, found that while surveillance was not “widespread or systemic”, there were more than 20 attempts by the PSNI to identify journalists’ sources.

The review also raised “significant concerns” about the PSNI conducting trawls of its systems "to identify unauthorised contact between PSNI personnel and journalists".

In an interview with the Irish Examiner last April, Mr Birmingham said he wanted to ensure the agencies with “intrusive powers” of surveillance had the systems in place in "sensitive" investigations.

He said: “These include cases where the action proposed would likely have implications for legal professional privilege, journalistic privilege, or other areas of particular sensitivity, such as membership of the Oireachtas.

"In such cases, likely to be rare, there should be specific consideration given at an appropriately high level to the question of whether the action contemplated is nonetheless appropriate and proportionate.” 

He recommended that the bodies specifically include and record their assessments in their internal procedural documents.

He said he received “absolutely no pushback” from the agencies, and that they saw "merit" in it.

In his response, the Taoiseach said: “The Government welcomes your procedural recommendation to the relevant authorities with regard to the question of the particular sensitivities that arise in cases where categories of privilege exist, and it notes that the recommendation was well received by all relevant bodies.” 

Mr Birmingham also said he intends to conduct a scoping review of Ireland’s existing espionage legislation to see whether a “full review” is warranted.

He pointed out that the main law, the Official Secrets Act 1963, dates from more than 60 years ago, and that other countries, such as Britain and Australia, had recently conducted reviews.

On this, Mr Martin said: “Your proposal to carry out an overview of the State's existing espionage legislation, notably the Official Secrets Act 1963 is also welcome given, as you note, the antiquity of the current legislative framework and the significant evolution of the landscape in this regard in the intervening period.” 

In his annual report, Mr Birmingham made a number of recommendations on modernising and strengthening key security legislation on interception (phone tapping), surveillance (spy recording devices and trackers) and communication data (phone and email traffic data).

Mr Martin said the Government shares the judge’s view that the Interception of the Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Act 1993 is “seriously out of date” and that a new Communications (Interception and Lawful Access) Bill is being drafted which would implement the inspectors’ recommendations.

The Taoiseach said the recommendations – mostly procedural - in relation to the Criminal Justice (Surveillance Act) 2009 will be the subject of “further analysis and engagement with relevant competent authorities".

In relation to the inspector’s recommendations on communication data, Mr Martin said proposals for new legislation are under development to replace the Communication (Retention of Data) Act 2011, which was substantially amended in 2022 to take account of developments in Irish and European courts.