INDEPENDENT TD Michael Healy-Rae has sought formal assurances from Minister for Justice Alan Shatter that News of the World-style phone hacking had not taken place in Ireland.
The Kerry South TD, who was recently at the centre of a controversy involving premium rate phone calls from Leinster House, yesterday indicated he was not happy with Mr Shatter’s response.
“I am informed by the Garda authorities that they are not aware of any reports of unauthorised access to voicemails having been made in this jurisdiction.”
Mr Shatter was responding to a written Dáil question put down by Mr Healy-Rae, who had called on the Minister to give an assurance to the public “that the practices that occurred in England regarding the hacking of phones is not happening here”.
He also said Mr Shatter should offer an assurance that the alert systems of the emergency services and Garda were “free from any type of interference or hacking”.
Mr Shatter said that Tetra, the digital radio service for the Garda Síochána, emergency services and some non-commercial public bodies, offered protection against “eavesdropping and interception” through advanced digital encryption mechanisms.
“Consequently, the Garda authorities are confident that the radio traffic is secure and unauthorised access is prevented.”
All providers of publicly available electronic communications networks had an obligation to take measures to safeguard the security of its service and to inform subscribers where there is a particular risk of a breach of security, Mr Shatter added.
He said that the interception of telecommunications messages was prohibited by the amended Postal and Telecommunications Service Act 1983, while the Criminal Damage Act 1991 provided for the offence of unauthorised accessing of data.
