Northern Ireland's most senior police officer wants the Public Prosecution Service to be able to use phone tapping evidence against international terror suspects in court.
Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said the provision should be introduced as a weapon of last resort with tight judicial scrutiny but admitted it was not currently viable.
He was speaking after the UK authorities last week foiled a plot to bomb ten flights from Britain and arrested 21 people.
Sir Hugh told the BBC: "I do think there are some opportunities, albeit limited, to use evidence or intercepts which you can't currently put before the courts to bring people to justice.
"It would need a very complicated system of warranty (judicial permission) and substantial judicial oversight."
Thursday's security alerts caused chaos at airports across the UK, with flights into Heathrow cancelled and many flights from Belfast's two airports dropped.
The country was on the highest state of alert for aeroplane bombings and passenger cabin luggage was limited to essentials carried in clear plastic bags.
Detectives in Scotland Yard in London have 28 days to question suspects, who were arrested using intelligence information.
They believe insurgents wanted to use a liquid explosive to destroy US-bound flights from the UK, possibly over American cities.
Sir Hugh said advancing technology made the use of eavesdropping methods difficult.
"It is too complicated and it's not viable," he added. Sinn Fein West Tyrone Assemblyman Barry McElduff said civil libertarians around the world would attack the practice.
"In principle I would be opposed to this technology. In Ireland's case we should not be subject to British Government listening devices," he said.
"I believe they are omnipresent and endemic in Ireland. The British Government should come clean and reveal the extent of its eavesdropping apparatus."