Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has insisted there has been no widespread accessing of civilians' phones.

Ms Fitzgerald said 8,000 such requests are made by gardaí every year in Ireland, in comparison to 725,000 in the United Kingdom.

She said: “Let’s be very clear - there is no widespread snooping on private individuals’ phones or their records.” Ms Fitzgerald said the 2011 legislation allows gardaí to access phone records and logs when they are concerned about a threat to the security to the State or to someone’s life.

Relatively low

She insisted the requests are not out of line with other countries and that Ireland’s rate is relatively low.

Over a five-year period, more than 60,000 applications were made by State authorities for access to landline, mobile phone and internet data to companies providing services to the Irish public.

The revelation follows concern over the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) accessing three journalists' phone records and a wider debate about use by the Garda of its powers to spy on the public.

‘Thorough’ investigation

Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan said every avenue is used by an Garda Síochána to ensure crimes are investigated fully and thoroughly.

She said: “We take the investigation of crime seriously and we make sure resources that are required are used in the investigation of crime.

“I have certainly seen over the past number of days questions about whether there are more resources into investigating [media] leaks that is quite simply untrue, and there is no foundation to those claims.”