'Alarm sounded' on Russian threat to Ireland

Mr Justice Meenan said there was an urgent need to update legislation to allow Gardaí and the Defence Forces to access encrypted communications to combat organised crime gangs and to protect State security. Picture: Courtpix

The latest oversight report on Ireland's spying laws has “sounded the alarm” on the scale of the threat posed by Russian intelligence services to Ireland.

Professor Edward Burke made the comment following the report of High Court judge Charles Meenan, who supervises the interception of phone calls and post, and access to traffic data on private communications.