Gardaí probe claim aid worker's passport 'compromised'

Gardaí are continuing their investigation into claims that an Irish charity volunteer working with orphans in Russia had data from her passport used by a Russian spy ring.

Details of the spy ring were uncovered in the US earlier this year.

Debbie Deegan, director of the charity 'To Russia With Love', confirmed that gardai last week contacted a female volunteer working with the group to inform her that her passport had been compromised.

Ms Deegan said that while the development is distressing, it won't take away from the work that they do in the future.

"It seems to be a random thing," she said. "This particular volunteer travelled with us three years ago and we have no worries that it happened to anybody else or will happen to anybody again.

"All our passports leave our hands at different times when we are travelling so we have no idea when this happened.

"Our main concern is the children that we work with and something like this takes everybody's eye off the ball."