Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, again, on "Prime Time", journalist Joe Galvin raised the issue of the Israeli company Cellebrite used by the PSNI to crack the phones of journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney. There has been an overlap in personnel between the PSNI from that time and An Garda Síochána since then. It has also been reported that Meta, which owns WhatsApp, announced that up to 100 journalists' phones were compromised by another Israeli company, Paragon Solutions. This is right on our doorstep, up North and across the water. Will the Taoiseach guarantee to this House and the public watching that no journalists, public representatives or members of civic society are in any way being targeted with the use of such technology by any arm of the State? What is the Government doing to protect our communications from spyware, particularly the use of WhatsApp, which has now been compromised in many jurisdictions?

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