LEGAL proceedings are to be launched against An Garda Siochana, after a sophisticated tracking device was discovered under the car of a member of Republican Network for Unity in Carlow.
The political group would be considered close to the thinking of Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH), who called a ceasefire in January 2017.
At the time in a statement to the Irish News ONH said:"The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann are announcing that with immediate effect we will suspend all armed actions against the British state".
The ceasefire is though to have came about following a lengthy period of debate within the group and was endorsed at the time by both the British and Irish governments.
Formed with a number of former senior members of the Provisional IRA, ONH was at one time the most active of the dissident groups, however, has maintained the ceasefire with no reported breaches since the announcement.
The man, who did not want to be named, found the GPS tracking and listening device, hidden in the undercarriage of his family car earlier this month.
He drove the car across the border to Northern Ireland where the device was removed and handed over to his solicitor Peter Corrigan of Phoenix Law.
Shortly after this a gardaí armed response unit arrived at the man's house and said they needed to remove his car in connection with an ongoing investigation.
The man was told it would be taken to a garda station that was around a 30 minute drive from his house for examination.
However, after 20 minutes later the car was returned and the man told that it was no longer needed. He was not arrested and no other items were removed.
Eadhárd Ó Cuinn, national chairperson of RNU, said questions should be asked as to why their members were still under such "intrusive" forms of surveillance.
"This man is a member of a completely legitimate and legal political group", he said.
"While members of RNU would have been subject to aggressive and intrusive surveillance in the past, we were told the justification at that time was a 'security' one.
"The man in question is new to RNU and is simply keen to involve himself in community enhancing work.
"There is no security risk from our members, we've made our position clear on that and you don't need to take our word for it, it has been widely politically recognised.
"What we have here are people trying to justify their existence by intruding on the privacy of Irish citizens without any justification", he added.
Peter Corrigan of Phoenix Law said they would be issuing proceedings in the Republic for breach of privacy. "This man is entitled to a private family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and we will be issuing legal proceedings on those grounds".
A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said they "would not be in a position to comment".
