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[The report by Irish Council for Civil Liberties can be downloaded from the linked site.]

TLDR:

• Almost every department of the Irish Government and local authorities have installed Chinese surveillance systems. The state body responsible for public buildings, the Office of Public Works (OPW), has designated China’s Hikvision as one of only three permitted security camera manufacturers that can be installed in public buildings.
• Hikvision’s company documents attest that it is controlled by the Chinese State. Hikvision cameras are connected to the Internet and may be relaying the data that they collect to China. Chinese law allows the State to access data held by Chinese companies.
• Irish public bodies, including courts and military, have installed these systems. Some Hikvision cameras are intended to recognise individual members of the public using facial recognition, and people’s emotional states (so-called “emotion recognition” and “behaviour analysis”).
• Hikvision devices are installed on Luas trams and at major train and bus stations (Heuston Station, Busáras, Cork bus station, etc.). It is hard to travel in Ireland without being tracked by China’s Hikvision surveillance system.

In a related report, experts warn Ireland’s current approach to the potential dangers posed by Hikvision raises urgent questions about data privacy, potential foreign access and the State’s alignment with international partners.

“When it comes to things like security cameras, I think it would be naive to wave that aside and not at least have a very in depth conversation about the potential security risks,” Dr Edward Burke, UCD’s assistant professor of war, told us.

“The EU has consistently warned member states to try and firewall critical security, critical national infrastructure, from companies threatening the European Union with mass espionage.

“And one of those countries that they have identified is, of course, China.”