Earlier this year the Supreme Court upheld a High Court ruling that the way gardaí accessed retained phone data did not meet EU standards. The Supreme Court did not finalise its judgment, however, saying it would first need to refer three questions to the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU). Dwyer wants it to have retrospective effect as it would call into question the use of the evidence at his trial. The third question was whether the Supreme Court has the competence to determine its decision should not be retrospective. Such an argument could be made in the Dwyer case as gardaí simply used the law as it was at the time.

Source: Irish Independent November 16, 2020 16:41 UTC