8,000 surveillance requests made a year by the Gardaí

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

But the Minister for Justice has defended the figures saying surveillance in Ireland is rarer than in other countries.

She has denied claims of "widespread snooping" on the personal records of citizens.

But she has said the level of surveillance mounted by Gardaí on phone and internet records is justified: “This is about investigating serious crime, let us be clear, there has to be a high threshold for access to phone records, phone logs,

“That is laid out in the legislation and is then carried out by GSOC and An Garda Siochana.”