Big Brother – in the guise of our Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan – threatens to intrude illegally into the data records of Irish people, men and women guaranteed under the European Union Data Protection Directive to have their data free of any scrutiny or access by any other party in the absence of a detailed authorisation by law.
Under the rule of law direction, any interference deemed justifiable by the minister would violate the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
To be ‘in accordance with law’ means that there must be an ascertainable legal regime governing the interference in question. No such legal regime in Ireland governs any form of interference by an officer or officers of the State.
Minister Hogan, in threatening to gain access to personal data, should understand that if he does so without proper authorisation by European authorities, he will leave himself open to legal actions based on the principles recorded in the European Convention for Human Rights.
It must also be asked, where is the Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billie Hawkes on this matter? This is especially worrying when so many people, reasonably enough, expressed their concerns about the details of their personal lives as recorded in the Census being accessed by persons without authority to effect such intervention.
John Kelly
Mullingar, Co Westmeath
