THERE IS no legal basis for the covert surveillance now being carried out by members of the Garda Síochána, according to the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern.
This will be addressed in the forthcoming Surveillance Bill, he told the Law Society’s Gazette in a rare media interview.
He also told the magazine he was in politics “mainly by coincidence” and he stayed in politics because “it’s a job” and it “puts bread on the table.”
He said the surveillance legislation was needed to legalise Garda surveillance and to allow such evidence to be used in court.
This, combined with opinion evidence of membership of a criminal gang from a senior Garda officer to the Special Criminal Court, may obviate the necessity for many witnesses in court, he said.
“I think the surveillance legislation will help, in that it will give the guards a little bit more corroborative evidence and perhaps we might be able to ground a prosecution based on opinion evidence of a chief superintendent with corroboration, including surveillance,” he said.
He rejected the suggestion that this legislation and changes introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2007 represented a threat to civil liberties, stating that, in relation to criminal gangs “the State has to work with not one, but two hands tied behind its back”.
The Surveillance Bill meets the exemptions allowed by the European Convention on Human Rights, he said.
He said there was a need to find a balance between the invasion of privacy in the Surveillance Bill and a citizen’s right to privacy, and said that this also needed to be addressed, referring to the planned Privacy Bill.
The Defamation Bill, currently going through the Oireachtas, and the Privacy Bill, were two sides of the same coin.
Asked why he had become a solicitor, he told the Gazette: “Because it was the next quickest thing in college that wasn’t teaching.” He said he got into politics mainly by coincidence. Asked why he stayed, he replied: “It’s a job.”
“Just that?” asked the Gazette. “It’s a job,” Mr Ahern repeated. “Well, I am where I am. It’s very hard to get out of politics once you’re in it, even if you wanted to get out.
“There is an element of loyalty, and ultimately there’s an element that it puts bread on the table. I would have to find a job elsewhere, and it’s probably a bit difficult nowadays.”
He said he did not ever see himself going back into law.