Everyone has a right to privacy, regardless of their status. Common sense means those in public life will not expect the same degree of privacy as others, a member of the Law Reform Commission, Mr Arthur Plunkett, told the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Mr Plunkett was briefing the committee on the commission report on privacy, surveillance and the interception of communications. He said that the commission held that while everyone had a right of privacy, the public interest might dictate that some details of a person's private life might have to be publicised. Details relevant to the discharge of a public function might be legitimately publicised in the public interest, but not just because this was deemed to be newsworthy, said Mr Plunkett.

The chairman of the committee, Mr Eoin Ryan, said he agreed that there should be legislation governing privacy, as recommended by the Law Reform Commission. But he added that when one remembered how Princess Diana and other public figures were hounded by press photographers, even in countries where such legislation existed, one had to ask if legislation worked.

Mr Plunkett said that there was a "web of privacy law". Most of it worked, but the Council of Europe had said this summer that where there was a problem laws should be strengthened and introduced "as a matter of priority".

Ms Liz McManus of Democratic Left said that 25 years ago no one talked of the right to privacy, it was just the norm.

But that had its downside as well. It meant institutions with authority, including governments and the Catholic Church, never felt it necessary to divulge information.

Mr Plunkett said privacy was a human right. The law in Ireland was inadequate, as new technology and the information society made it more difficult to retain one's privacy.