Saturday, 18 June 2022 | 11.6°C Dublin

Convicted killer Graham Dwyer. Photo: Collins

Convicted killer Graham Dwyer. Photo: Collins

The Cabinet is to sign off on plans for emergency legislation which will ensure gardaí can continue to access retained data for national security reasons in the wake of the ruling on the Graham Dwyer murder trial.

J ustice Minister Helen McEntee is seeking permission from Cabinet to draft emergency laws to allow the security services to make preservation orders for data in limited circumstances relating to people considered to be a threat to the State.

A separate piece of legislation will be drafted to address the issues raised in the High Court judgment on how mobile phone data linked to Dwyer was obtained by gardaí investigating the murder of Elaine O’Hara.

However, a Government source said a “legislative fix” is needed in the interim to ensure a certain amount of data can continue to be collected by gardaí investigating potential national security threats.

The legislative move follows on from a Supreme Court ruling in favour of Graham Dwyer after the State appealed a High Court decision.

In 2019, the High Court found Irish legislation under which gardaí accessed the records, the 2011 Communications Act, contravened EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights.

It found the two years mobile phone companies could retain data was general and indiscriminate and the system used by gardaí to access such data lacked external oversight.

The Supreme Court said it would uphold the High Court ruling, but sought clarity on key issues of EU law from the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg, which found in favour of Dwyer last month.

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The EU court said data could be retained for investigative purposes but must be done in a limited way.

Mobile phone data was central to the successful conviction of Dwyer for the murder of Ms O’Hara.

Gardaí were able to trace the movement of pre-paid phones the architect used to contact Ms O’Hara in the weeks and months before he murdered the childcare worker in the Killakee Mountains in south Dublin.

Synced text messages on Ms O’Hara’s laptop also gave gardaí horrific details of the abusive sadomasochistic relationship she was in with Dwyer.

Detectives discovered Dwyer’s work phone pinged off masts in Killakee an hour after one of the pre-paid phones texted that he was going to check out the spot for her “punishment”, where he killed her.

Dwyer is seeking to overturn his conviction for Ms O’Hara’s murder on the basis that the data was not properly obtained by gardaí.

The convicted killer can take his case to the Court of Appeal following the judgment of the Supreme Court and CJEU.

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