UK phone row meeting urged

The Government should seek a top-level meeting with the British Home Office over the alleged interception of telecommunications from Ireland and should not be "fobbed off" by junior officials, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs was told yesterday.

Fine Gael TD Mr Gay Mitchell called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, to raise the matter with his British counterpart, Mr Robin Cook.

The Irish Ambassador in London has twice met officials from the Home Office who refused to comment on the allegations - made in a Channel 4 television programme - that a surveillance tower in Cheshire has been screening all telecommunications from Ireland since the 1980s.

Mr Dermot Gallagher, second secretary general at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said the Department was "deeply concerned" about the issue, but "the reality is that we are going to get nothing conclusive" from discussions with the British government.

But Mr Mitchell said there was evidence to suggest the Cheshire facility may have compromised not only the confidentiality of commercial correspondence, but also of Government negotiations. There was a prima-facie case for further investigation.

In their meeting with the Irish Ambassador, Home Office officials said there was no blanket surveillance of Irish telecommunications for commercial reasons. But they said they could not comment on whether surveillance was in operation for security purposes.