Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All right. The Secretary General is saying these matters may have direct relevance to her report so he cannot answer. Okay. At a previous meeting, between the Department's last appearance before the committee, I alluded to the fact that documentation arrived anonymously to me at Leinster House some weeks ago. I said I would seek legal advice on same and I have. The contents of this documentation are a matter of major concern for me. I do not want the clerk to panic at this stage and nobody is going to be named here. I do want to make a point, however, and I have taken legal advice on what I am about to say.

These appear to be a list of profiles of people who may have been and may still be serving prison officers or contractors. It includes what I would describe as personal detailed information and allegations of wrongdoing. The documentation gives detailed accounts of movements of a person or persons in areas outside a prison environment with dates, times, addresses and vehicle registration numbers. The providence of this information, according to these documents, if genuine, would implicate the operational support group of the Prison Service in surveillance and intelligence gathering outside the prison environment. As a result of the nature and content of these documents, which are here, I will today forward a copy to each of the Garda Commissioner and the Data Protection Commissioner as the relevant authorities. Naturally, this is a matter of major concern to me, as I assume it is to the Secretary General.

The Chairman should stop me whenever my time is up as I want to come in for a second round. Is the Department or the Irish Prison Service, to the witness's knowledge, aware of an instance of a Prison Service employee with responsibility for stores in any of our prisons whom it is alleged has sold prison stores items on the Internet? Can he confirm whether this person was simply allowed to resign as opposed to being subjected to the appropriate Garda investigation, prosecution, penalties and loss recovery to the State? If the Department is not aware of such an instance, will Mr. O'Driscoll make all the necessary inquiries?