‘Always a risk’ foreign governments will interfere in Irish elections – minister

The potential for foreign governments to interfere in Irish elections is always a “risk”, the justice minister has said.

Helen McEntee said disinformation online can have “massive implications” for democracy.

Her comments came after the Irish Times reported that Ireland was among several countries to have been sent a diplomatic cable by the US state department warning of the prospect of potential election meddling by the Russian authorities.

Ms McEntee was asked about the issue as she spoke to reporters in Dublin on Monday morning.

“I think that’s always the risk,” she said.

“I think we’ve seen this in other countries, we’ve seen it in other jurisdictions, whether it’s one particular country or any others, we have to be mindful of that.

“And that is why we have a cybersecurity structure that has been set up in this country to look at different types of threats, whether it’s hacking, whether it’s interference of this kind, whether it’s disinformation, which can have massive implications for democracy.

“So that is work that’s ongoing. But also, we know, An Garda Siochana have their own intelligence units looking at the type of information that’s put up online, looking at the types of groups that are putting this information up, the potential implications for that.

“So this is something that is kept under continuous review. But I would again remind people, if you’re looking at information online, where’s this information coming from? What are the sources? Can it be trusted or not?

“You know, something as simple as not to believe absolutely everything that you read, you need to make sure that you are taking it from a trusted source.”