I thought I’d collect up some of the other responses from MEPs to constituants who asked why they voted the way they did. My thanks to The Dossing Times, who gave me permission to repost the letters from here. (You can also see the letter he sent at the end of that link as well).
Thank you for writing to me and expressing your views in relation to the vote on data retention. I am very much aware of the concern surrounding this proposed Directive. I would like to briefly outline my views to you in relation to this important debate.
When voting last week I voted in favour of the majority of the proposed new legislation but I abstained in the final vote on the resolution as a whole and I will explain my reasoning to you.
The position of the Irish Government is that this legislation should be dealt with as part of the so-called Third Pillar, meaning that each Member State should legislate individually in this area as opposed to introducing pan-European legislation. The Irish Government is concerned that the current approach may not be legally sound and may even make a legal challenge to the decision.
It is important to stress the point that Irish legislation is currently tougher as regards data retention than this proposed legislation. Our national legislation provides for a retention period of three years in the case of telephonic data whereas this proposed legislation stipulates a much shorter period permitted for the retention of data. Ireland has maintained that it has been necessary to retain data for this length of time due to security concerns we have had to deal with.
I, too, am uncomfortable with the principle of data retention and certainly do not want to move towards a big brother system either but I do believe that limited data retention is now a necessity. I am in favour of a common position between Member States of the European Union as an effective way to deal with security threats. I think it will give governments and police important assistance in fighting serious crime and terrorism. I did not want to prevent this piece of legislation but rather to register my concern and question the legal basis of this proposed piece of legislation. I would prefer not to have to go down this road at all but I do see it as one of the unfortunate necessities in combating serious crime and terrorism.
It would be farcical to have long periods of data retention in Ireland and shorter periods of data retention across the EU.
Should you have further questions or comments in relation to this matter do not hesitate to contact me at this address.
Best regards,
Simon Coveney