Irish Council for Civil Liberties 🏳️‍🌈

Our Executive Director Joe O'Brien appeared on @rteradio1.bsky.social yesterday and raised some of our concerns about the Minister for Justice's plans to change criminal legal aid. @lawsocietyireland.bsky.social

Olga Cronin, ICCL Senior Policy Officer, spoke at the Oireachtas AI Committee recently, where she shared our position on recommender algorithms and a social media ban for under 16s.

Olga Cronin, ICCL Senior Policy Officer, spoke at the AI Committee this week, highlighting the work we have done with Digital Rights Ireland to urge An Garda Síochána, Coimisúin Na Meán and the DPC to fully investigate Grok’s faciitation of the creation of CSAM and other illegal and harmful content.

Emily Williams, ICCL’s Policing & Justice Policy Officer, spoke to RTÉ yesterday about the death of Mr Yves Sakila. We are very concerned about the disproportionate and excessive use of force and are calling for swift, thorough and transparent investigations by An Garda Síochána and Fiosrú.

While ICCL broadly welcomes The Garda Powers Bill, we are concerned that there are no definitions of specific types of searches or what rank of gardaí is can authorise each type; insuficient record of stop and searches; and there is insufficient protection of journalistic privilege.

A new Bill would give gardaí access to the CCTV of public bodies without any authorisation process. It would also allow areas with "a pattern of criminal activity" be designated Crime Prevention Zones. This is a concerning attempt to remove the safeguards which prevent inappropriate use of CCTV.

Finally, watch @tjmcintyre.com recommend to the committee that, moving forward, the sections of the Bill that are not required under NIS2 should be dropped to allow for the straightforward transposition of NIS2 and then the State can consider what else is necessary. (15/15)

Here @tjmcintyre.com explains why it’s so problematic that the Bill is putting the NCSC - which is being given very broad powers - under the direct political control of the Minister. (14/15)

In short, they agreed. (13/15)

Senator Lynn Ruane asked attendees if they believed the powers provided under the Bill cross the line from cybersecurity measures into surveillance powers. (12/15)

Dept of Justice officials told the committee this Head 3 section refers to a function as opposed to a power. @tjmcintyre.com highlights that the powers under Head 7 (to block access and issue an internet death penalty) do not require a court order or independent oversight. (11/15)

Watch @tjmcintyre.com explain why having no definition of 'national security' anywhere in Irish law means this could lead the NCSC to have a very open-ended power, left to the discretion of the Minister, to order the surveillance of the communications of everyone in the State. (9/15)

He also explains how Head 9 would allow the NCSC to compel communications providers, such as WhatsApp and iMessage, to install surveillance devices on their networks to scoop up metadata of every user of the service on the basis of ‘national security’. (7/15)

Watch @tjmcintyre.com explain how Head 7 would give the NCSC very wide powers to block access to websites and how 8 would give it the unprecedented power to scan and store the entirety of the network traffic in public sector bodies, which could include the contents of politicians’ emails. (5/15)

Here @tjmcintyre.com explains why allowing the NCSC to scan in this way is so problematic. (4/15)

Watch @tjmcintyre.com tell the committee how Head 6 would allow the NCSC to scan any publicly accessible network or information system for vulnerabilities - without their knowledge or consent - including small businesses, NGOs, homes, or politicians’ offices. (3/15)