Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the sweep, I refer the Senator to the brief that I received and distributed to members. This is what I relied on, together with my conversation with Mr. O'Brien. The brief states:

On 23 to 27 September 2013, in accordance with standard operating procedures, a security sweep was conducted of GSOC's Head Office. This was conducted by a UK security firm as the Irish firm that had previously conducted such operations for GSOC had gone out of business.

Standard operating procedures gave rise to the security sweep. It was not suggested to me that the sweep was conducted because of any concerns about any matters. I appreciate that the opening statement by Simon O'Brien to the joint committee could have given rise to that impression. Those matters that he detailed as issues in the background were not detailed to me. Nevertheless, in fairness to Mr. O'Brien, he clearly explained this in the later portions of the engagement he had with the committee. I will not repeat the quotation I attributed to him. If Senator Ó Clochartaigh carefully reads the transcript, a whole series of similar statements were made by him.