A new law that would compel telecoms firms to capture and retain a range of data including phone call and emails for three years would hurt commerce, an industry lobby group has said.

ICT Ireland, a lobby group which represents the technology industry, said yesterday that proposed legislation being drawn up by the Department of Justice would undermine competitiveness in the technology sector.

It would also raise serious privacy issues that could harm consumer confidence in advanced technologies, the technology lobby group said in a statement.

The Department of Justice recently confirmed it was preparing a bill that would compel communications firms to store data records for up to three years in a bid to combat crime and terrorism. It is currently conducting a consultation process with the general public and is expected to publish legislation later this year.

ICT Ireland said while it was committed to co-operating with law enforcement agencies, it was concerned that the current proposal may unduly harm the competitive and dynamic nature of the Irish ICT industry.

Mr Brendan Butler, director of ICT Ireland, said the Telecommunications (Retention of Data Traffic) Bill was a concern to ICT Ireland as the provisions far exceeded those being considered in other jurisdictions.

He said ICT Ireland had proposed a five point plan in its submission to the Minister for Justice before implementation of the traffic data requirements. These include consideration of the capabilities and impact on service providers and ultimately end users and the cost of storing the data.

Mr Butler said other EU states had proposed less stringent data retention schemes. The matter is being discussed at EU level and many states are pushing for a six-month retention period, he said.