Dublin residents are concerned that CCTV system installed around the Irish Parliament is spying on them

Concerns have been raised about the Irish Parliament’s use of a CCTV system made by a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

This weekend, a human rights group sent a letter to the Houses of the Oireachtas in Dublin to express concerns about the use of Hikvision surveillance cameras inside and outside the buildings.

Because of security concerns, Hikvision has been banned in a number of places in the West. Due to national security concerns, Australia took down hundreds of cameras made by the company from its defense sites this week.

In November, the US government said it was banning telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from several well-known Chinese brands, including Hikvision, to protect its communications network.

In November, British Government buildings were also not allowed to have security cameras made by Hikvision.

This weekend, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the leaders of the political parties sent a letter to the Oireachtas commission expressing concern that the Chinese Communist Party has a controlling stake in Hikvision and that its devices in Italy have sent data back to China.

Dr. Kris Shrishak, a technology fellow at the ICCL, said, “Not only is there a chance that cameras inside the Oireachtas are sending information back to China, but security researchers find new security holes all the time that allow hackers to take full control of different types of Hikvision cameras.”

“Hackers can record what the cameras see and, maybe, what they hear.

“ICCL has seen Hikvision cameras both inside and outside of the Oireachtas Buildings. The cameras are set up in places where they can record video of TDs, senators, staff, and private conversations between them. “They might also record what was said,” he said.

The ICCL also said that Hikvision is responsible for “grave” violations of human rights against Uyghur Muslims in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. The company has denied these claims in the past.

The council has asked if a security risk assessment, a human rights risk assessment, and a data protection impact assessment were done on the use of Hikvision cameras, if the assessments will be made public, and if the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission will now “urgently” remove all Hikvision cameras and equipment.

Simon Harris, who is the Minister of Justice, said that he doesn’t talk about security issues.

He said, “I’m sure the people in charge at Leinster House care a lot about the safety of our national parliament.”

Hikvision has been asked for their opinion.