Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. Mr. Simon O'Brien of GSOC gave a statement to this committee last week, which in part resembled the briefing note he gave the Minister, subsequent to which the Minister addressed the Dáil. What was noteworthy was that the Ombudsman decided to instigate a section 102 public interest investigation, subsequent to a general sweep of the offices. When two technical and electronic anomalies were identified at the time, there was no suggestion that technology exclusively within the access or remit of the State would be required. It is only subsequent to the investigation being conducted that a third anomaly was found. It was suggested then that the "know how" for the 3G device would be something available at government level. Clearly, beforehand there was no suggestion that this might be related to some of the arms of the Government or institutions of the State.

I note that in Mr. O'Brien's briefing document to the Minister, he did not provide the prelude that he gave to us, which stated that he had these concerns over the summer and tensions were high between him and the Garda authorities. He instigated a section 102 public interest investigation simply on the basis of that, which really was not evidence of any surveillance having taken place. Subsequent to that, we have seen the suggestion that at least one of those investigations can be very innocently explained; namely, in respect of the Wi-Fi device.