The Government has brought forward plans for an £80 million secure radio system for the Gardai following the discovery earlier this month that republican paramilitaries were listening to Garda messages during an armed raid on a security van in south Dublin.
The new system, which incorporates a double-lock system to prevent eavesdropping, is expected to be tested this year and in place by 2003, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said yesterday.
The existing Garda national radio network, some of which dates from the mid-1980s, will be entirely replaced with the digital system built to the EU's Tetra (trunked terrestrial radio) standard. Several manufacturers are being contacted for tenders and a supplier will be chosen later this year.
The Department of Justice had already contracted consultants and received a report late last year, including proposals for a new national system.
The new network is likely to coincide with the consultant's recommendations for a national digital network incorporating encrypted signalling.
The new "private mobile radios" will, like the GSM mobile phones, broadcast digital signals which make them almost impossible to intercept. The double lock feature will be provided by the further encryption of the signal which means that even if it is intercepted, the eavesdropper will hear only a garbled signal.
The "national" radio network consists of at least four systems: the Dublin Metropolitan Area network, the provincial Garda network, the encrypted network installed in Cork in 1994, and the encrypted network used by the specialist Garda units such as the Emergency Response Unit and National Surveillance Unit. These systems are analogue broadcasting on a frequency modulated (FM) format over a very high frequency (VHF) radio channel. The non-encrypted networks, which cover most of the State, are therefore relatively easy to intercept by anyone using any of the VHF/FM scanners which are available on the market.
In a raid on the security van in Dalkey three weeks, ago the gardai found two radio scanners in the back of the getaway car abandoned by the raiders. Both were tuned to the Garda networks and the gang was apparently aware that armed detectives were following it closely.
There have been concerns about the interception of Garda messages for years. During the investigation into the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, detectives discovered that the gang responsible was regularly listening to Garda radio transmissions.
The detectives largely abandoned their radios and used their own GSM mobile phones to communicate with each other, bearing the cost themselves, to maintain security during raids.
The new radio system will not only allow gardai to broadcast more freely but also to contact gardai from different divisions. They will also have a facility for data broadcasts, linking computers in patrol cars with command and control centres.
The new system will entail the installation of "base station" sets in most of the 700 Garda stations in the State, with probably a further 1,200 sets in cars and as many as 6,000 hand-held sets.
The new radio network will be installed alongside the computerised information network which will link computers in Garda stations throughout the State for the transmission of information on crime and traffic incidents. This £55 million project is due to be in place by the end of this year.
Mr O'Donoghue yesterday said: "Considerable progress in tackling crime has been achieved since the Government came into office. Crime levels are down 16 per cent and we want to build on these successes by ensuring that the Garda Siochana has at its disposal the equipment and tools to maintain the current anti-crime momentum."