Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's explanations just do not add up in the context of what we understand him to have known last week as against what he said in the Dáil. When addressing the House, the Minister used the phrases "I understand that no connection between any member of An Garda Síochána with any of these matters arose" and "While no information has been furnished to me by GSOC suggesting that An Garda Síochána was involved in any way in what gave rise to the concerns which arose in GSOC about its security". The briefing he received from GSOC - which he was in possession of when he made his statement - says that the investigation was launched on the basis that the acting director of investigations in GSOC was of the opinion that, to the extent that these threats could be proven, section 102(4) engaged and that such surveillance may have originated with An Garda Síochána. In other words, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission told the Minister that it may be under surveillance and that such surveillance may have been undertaken by An Garda Síochána. That is why it launched the investigation. Why did the Minister not admit that last week? Why did he flatly deny that he was aware of those submissions and that the Ombudsman's brief had made him aware of them? Why did he try to kill off the story? All of this does not add up.