Revenue have acquired significant new powers under this Act which was signed into law by President McAleese last week. In essence, subject to particularly strict checks and balances, a Revenue officer may monitor and record activities when investigating Revenue offences.

Applications for surveillance activities must be made to a District Court judge by a senior Revenue officer, and the activities must be shown to be proportionate, with little intrusion, and time bound. The Act makes particular provision for the confidential retention of information gathered and for a reporting process up the line as to the manner in which the surveillance is conducted. In general, surveillance should not be targeted towards gathering information which would be subject to legal professional privilege.

In addition, the operation of the Act as a whole will be subject to ongoing review by a designated judge of the High Court. There is provision for a citizen to appeal the surveillance activity to an independent Referee.

Taken with the proposals in the Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2009 which we reported last week, Revenue will undoubtedly have considerable additional information gathering resources when pursuing tax and customs fraud.