Setting up new CCTV schemes ‘nearly impossible’ says Cork council official

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

The current regulation of CCTV schemes makes it “nearly impossible” to set up new ones, an official from Cork County Council told councillors at this week’s meeting of the Carrigaline Municipal District.

The councillors were discussing anti-social behaviour at Carrigaline’s community park and whether CCTV cameras might help in tackling the problem. Senior Executive Officer Maurice Murphy said it has become very hard to establish CCTV schemes because of the data management requirements.

“It's a very, very difficult thing to get in place now and I know this from other initiatives I've tried to get going over the last few years within the council. It's nearly impossible to get sign-off from the data [protection] commissioner on these kind of schemes now,” he said.

“I think the problem is the regulation behind the CCTV. It's all well and good and easy to put in, it's the management afterwards. I know myself from a recent incident, I managed to supply very good CCTV footage of an incident and didn't get a result.”

Cllr Jack White responded that “it's sad that we're in that space now as a society where data and privacy is valued more than protection of people and safety and infrastructure.”

CCTV use is governed by the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Act 2023. If a local authority wants to install CCTV cameras in a public place to assist the Gardai it needs to get the permission of the Garda Commissioner, provide a data protection impact assessment and enter into a joint data controller agreement with the Gardai.

In addition, the Data Protection Commission regulates the use of CCTV to ensure that all CCTV systems comply with data protection principles.