Here is Friday's lunchtime bulletin.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) paid nearly €30,000 to two private investigation firms, it has emerged, as an investigation continues into claims that officers were tracked and monitored during covert surveillance on the country’s prisons.

With confirmation that the prison service has employed two private investigation firms, we do not know what service they provided, writes Michael Clifford.

The overwhelming majority of the incarcerated come from disadvantaged areas of the State, writes Michael Clifford

A Garda investigation has been launched into allegations surrounding the Irish Prison Service.

A serving prison officer claims covert surveillance, including tracking devices on vehicles and listening tools in visiting areas, is being used in an effort to detect the smuggling of contraband into prisons, writes Michael Clifford.

The State’s human rights watchdog has expressed concerns over Government proposals to reform Ireland’s bugging laws.

Draft legislation aimed at reforming State access to communication data is in breach of European law, a leading human rights body has warned.

It is expected that the Murray report into the bugging of journalists’ phones by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, which will be given to the Cabinet today, will advocate new limits on how gardaí and some other State agencies can snoop on private citizens’ electronic communications and use of websites.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told politicians she stands by her 2013 complaint that "spying among friends" is unacceptable as she appeared before a committee examining alleged US surveillance in Germany.

There has been a 150% jump in the use of covert surveillance by gardaí on gangs and dissident republicans in the last year.

An international manhunt was under way for the prime suspect in the Berlin Christmas market massacre amid questions over why he was free to carry out the attack.

Gardaí and the Revenue Commissioners installed tracking devices on 29 vehicles last year.

It has emerged that Gardaí make about 8,000 requests a year for surveillance on public telephone and internet records.

Any Garda could potentially be able to put any person's phone records - including those of a TD - under surveillance.

Apple has warned that a British plan to give intelligence agencies extra online surveillance powers could weaken security of personal data for millions of people and paralyse the tech sector.

Ebola has been eliminated in Sierra Leone.

The French Parliament has adopted a controversial surveillance law aimed at broadening eavesdropping of terrorism suspects, despite protests from privacy advocates and concern about US-style massive data sweeps.

Digital rights experts have called for British-style levels of oversight on the shadowy world of surveillance.

Germany has halted its internet surveillance for the US’s National Security Agency (NSA) in response to a row over the BND intelligence agency’s co-operation with Washington.

The bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the government exceeds what Congress has allowed, a federal appeals court has said.

France’s parliament is to vote on a Bill aimed at legalising broad surveillance of terrorism suspects that has sparked an outcry among privacy advocates and others.

Retail giant Dunnes Stores secretly spied on staff who were suspected of eating food at a store’s deli counter without paying.

Just how secure is the information on your phone? Not very, thanks to the latest information-grabbing technology hovering overhead while you walk down a busy street.

The fight against terrorism can never justify secret and illegal mass surveillance, the European Parliament has said, demanding that a range of agreements with the US be scrapped or put on hold.

Our TDs, senators and media commentators are obsessed by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission having conducted two security checks since 2005. I am appalled that it is so laid back about electronic surveillance.