It is time for the Greens to show us their true colours. Is there a shaft of radicalism still, in a party that once styled itself as representing a challenge to the conservative status quo in Ireland as well as elsewhere in Europe? Or are they really just Blues in disguise? Is there a dissenting heartbeat to underpin Green politics here? Or, now that they are in Government, have they bought lock, stock and barrel into the neo-con agenda? And finally – and here’s the immediate issue of the day – are they willing to endorse the raft of new legislation that is being planned which will allow for the greatest ever level of surveillance of Irish citizens?
Answers on an environmentally friendly e-card, please.
Last week the EU approved new measures that include a proposal for the collection and storage of air passenger data for up to 13 years. These measures are justified on the basis that they will assist in the “battle against terrorism”. In a sense the EU is merely playing catch-up here. Our ultra-liberal friends in the US already require those airlines that carry people into the States from Europe to provide this information. So what do we do in Europe? We allow George Bush and his cronies to dictate the terms. We follow suit.
You might think that these measures would have given the Irish government at least a moment’s pause for thought. Apparently not. Indeed, so enthusiastically is the extension of surveillance being embraced by the Fianna Fail-led government that, during the past week, the Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan was able to announce his plans for new electronic border controls which – as he explained to the former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte in a written Dail reply – will require travel details of all air and sea passengers to and from the State to be entered into a centralised database and monitored by the Gardai.
The proposal, in other words, is that, as a matter of routine, the Gardai will check on the travel movements of Irish citizens as well as of visitors to this country.
It is the kind of thing that would have been denounced as dangerously Stalinist twenty years ago. However, when the plan was announced last week there was hardly a squeak about it in the media.
It is genuinely bizarre. How have we been manipulated into a situation where there is such a widespread acceptance of the inevitability of State intrusion into the private lives of individuals? A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable. But the propaganda war has been won by those who are in the business of promoting an ideology of chronic surveillance that is being taken to ever more extraordinary extremes. Or so it seems.
Is there no one out there who can conceive of a way – or ways – in which this kind of information might be used and abused by agencies of the State or by individuals working for them? Are we so stupid that we cannot foresee a time when the assumptions that we currently make about the bona fides of the State might not so obviously apply?
Here’s how the measures will work in practice. According to the Minister, airline and ferry companies will be required under law to forward passenger itineraries to a new agency which is being set up under the acronym IBOC (Irish Border Operations Centre). A project development team is already in place, which is in the process of formulating plans as to how IBOC will operate. The team is chaired by the joint Department of Justice and Garda Irish Naturalisation and Immigration service, and includes member of the Gardai, the Revenue Commissioners and various Government departments.
Ominously, the Minister admitted that the new logging system would include “watch lists” of so called “persons of interest”. Whenever someone considered to be a ‘person of interest’ books an air or sea journey to or from the State, the Gardai will be alerted to their plans.
Mr Lenihan explained that the purpose of the watch lists would be to combat terrorism, identify the movements of those engaged in serious crime, strengthen border controls and help collect data on immigration trends. He didn’t say whether journalists, solicitors or others who might have a professional need to meet or talk to people deemed suitable for inclusion on a watch list might themselves end up being watched.
Within two years, all passenger movements between the Republic and countries other than the UK – amounting to a whopping 15 million a year at present – will be in the database. Which begs a different question: how much is being spent on this system? Who is benefiting? And what is it going to cost to maintain and ‘monitor’ it?
The conventional response to anyone who questions the need for this kind of Big Brother-esque treatment of citizens is that if you’re not breaking the law you have nothing to fear. But that misses the point. You don’t have to look any further than Donegal to identify a massive abuse of ordinary citizens, perpetrated by the Gardai. And that happened in the context of a political regime which is relatively benign. But what is the guarantee that it will always be thus? There is none.
It is not too late for the Minister for Justice to reassess the plan. He is an intelligent man, who is far less gung ho than his predecessor, Michael McDowell. Almost certainly, the move predates his appointment, and is being pushed through by the Department. But it is not incumbent on him to proceed simply because the show was already on the road.
It is not scare-mongering to see the potential threat in these measures – and I suspect that Brian Lenihan is well capable of understanding this. However, if the Minister isn’t interested in re-examining the IBOC proposals, we are back to the Greens. Part of their remit in government is to be conscientious objectors to the dominant consensus.
Where there is a real danger of civil liberties being permanently eroded that’s exactly the position they should adopt. The question now is: are they up to the challenge?