No confirmation NSA spied on us, says Gilmore

The Government has not been given any information on whether the US National Security Agency has been spying on Ireland, but it has warned that eavesdropping on phones is not acceptable.

Standing alongside US diplomat Richard Haass, who is helping to tackle a number of outstanding problems in the North, Tanáiste Eamon Gilmore yesterday warned the US that “friends don’t bug each other’s telephones” and insisted such activity was unacceptable.

It has emerged that the Government raised theissue of NSA spying on the Council of Europe headquarters in Brussels with the US embassy in Dublin.