In an effort to combat the coronavirus, Ireland’s government considered a “dystopian surveillance system,” that could have included the monitoring of phone, CCTV, and financial transactions, an upcoming book will reveal.
An upcoming book, titled “Pandemonium: Power, Politics and Ireland’s Pandemic,” by journalists Jack Horgan-Jone of the Irish Times and Hugh O’Connell of the Irish Independent, will reveal, among other things, that the government considered a dystopian surveillance system to fight the pandemic.
The book describes the plan as “Orwellian,” considering it violation of privacy just to make sure the Irish people obeyed the nation’s Covid measures, which were, at time, the strictest in the globe.
“What emerged was an almost Orwellian plan, bizarrely dubbed 1 Government Centre (1GC),” the book says.
The plan was drafted by the government in collaboration with EY, a multinational consultancy firm. The government wanted to also monitor citizen’s takeouts through social media and banking data.
The report does not state why the Irish government ditched the plan. However, it states that the controversial Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, described the plan as a “load of horseshite” during meetings.
