Claim Garda Ombudsman HQ bugged

An Oireachtas committee is to contact the Garda Ombudsman, calling on it to make a formal statement on dramatic reports its offices have been bugged.

Pádraig MacLochlainn, chairman of the Oireachtas Public Services Oversight Committee, said Justice Minister Alan Shatter or some independent body needed to examine the claims.

The Sinn Féin deputy told the Irish Examiner that the reports placed a question mark over An Garda Síochána. He said he would be “shocked beyond belief” if the gardaí were behind the covert surveillance, adding he didn’t believe that was the case.