{"id":318867,"date":"2026-02-26T20:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/318867\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T20:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:15:08","slug":"new-e1m-government-meeting-room-will-protect-communications-with-world-leaders-says-martin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/318867\/","title":{"rendered":"New \u20ac1m Government meeting room will protect communications with world leaders, says Martin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost \u20ac1 million will be spent on a new secure meeting room in Government buildings, to guard against surveillance of conversations with other world leaders. <\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> confirmed that a \u20ac958,000 increase in \u201cpremises expenses\u201d at his department this year will go towards a new secure room \u201cbecause surveillance is everywhere\u201d. <\/p>\n

Martin was speaking to the select committee on finance on revised estimates for 2026 for his department. In 2026, the premises expenses for the Department of An Taoiseach<\/a> have increased 184 per cent to \u20ac1.48 million, up from \u20ac522,000 last year. <\/p>\n

Questioning Martin, Labour<\/a> TD Ged Nash<\/a> noted that the \u20ac958,000 increase was described in the revised estimates as additional expenditure \u201cto fulfil mandatory requirements for secure meeting facilities to allow continued engagement with international partners\u201d. <\/p>\n

Martin explained that secure facilities were sometimes required when he was talking to other international leaders, including meetings of the coalition of the willing. The coalition, which is made up of over 30 countries, brings world leaders together to advance the case for peace in Ukraine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those meetings, not all, would have sensitive things said, and you need secure, what\u2019s called \u2018Nato<\/a> proof\u2019 secure facilities. That\u2019s a standard that you need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have one in the country, okay? We need one in Government Buildings, for ease and so on. It\u2019s required, because surveillance is everywhere.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNato proof\u201d is an informal term used to describe the security requirements against passive and active \u201ceavesdropping\u201d for rooms where Nato classified information is discussed. <\/p>\n

The possession of such a facility is a prerequisite for countries receiving Nato intelligence. Other intelligence agencies also require partners to possess such rooms, and other secure communication technology, before sharing information.<\/p>\n

Secure communications facilities, often known by their US designation \u201csensitive compartmented information facilities\u201d or Scifs, are widely used by governments to prevent surveillance.<\/p>\n

They can be permanent rooms within a building or tentlike structures which can be rapidly deployed in the field if needed. For example, US president Donald Trump always travels with a Scif and also has them installed in the White House and his residence in Mar a Largo in Florida.<\/p>\n

They are made of material designed to block out all incoming and outgoing electronic and radio frequencies, preventing the use of remote surveillance, including sophisticated listening devices employed for foreign intelligence services.<\/p>\n

In some cases, entire buildings are fitted with materials to turn them into Scifs, such as the headquarters of MI6 in London.<\/p>\n

Access is strictly controlled and users are generally forbidden from taking any phones or electronic devices inside the Scif. Any communication with those outside the room is done through an encrypted line<\/p>\n

Martin told the same meeting that there had been a 20 per cent increase to the budget of the Office of the Attorney General, to \u20ac31.5 million. He said the office was increasing in size, which will also mean that it requires greater office space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost \u20ac1 million will be spent on a new secure meeting room in Government buildings, to guard against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,141970,44788,61,60,6189,1843,3026,9688],"class_list":["post-318867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-department-of-an-taoiseach","tag-ged-nash","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-labour-party","tag-micheal-martin","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organisation-nato","tag-ukraine-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}