P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this matter on the Adjournment. When discussing the successful capture by the Naval Service of the yacht Dances with Waves off the coast of south-west Cork on "Today with Pat Kenny" last Friday, the Minister for Defence referred to the previous unsuccessful attempt to import drugs from the yacht Lucky Day 17 months earlier. He stated:

There is a kind of perception abroad that the previous huge seizure 17 months ago that you mentioned there in west Cork around the same area was something that was more or less stumbled upon by accident. That is not true. I mean, that had been tracked also. That is not widely known that it had been widely tracked also.

As the minister stumbled over his words, he went on to state:

It would probably would have been taken, arrested and taken into custody, had the accident not happened which precipitated the action on the part of the officials here.

I do not know whether the Minister was still dreaming or just inventing a bit of revisionist history at that hour of the morning, but I would like to know where did he come up with this fairy tale.

It totally contradicts the statements by everyone else involved in this matter, including senior Garda officers who, on the day, described the capture as "an act of God". It also contradicts the evidence given by Commander Gene Ryan of the Naval Service in the trial of some of those charged and convicted over these events. In an interview with the "News at One" on RTE Radio 1 on 23 July 2008 at the conclusion of the trial, Commander Ryan explained how he traced the journey of the yacht from the records of two satellite phones recovered from the stricken RIB in Dunlough Bay, with the specialist technical help from the Iridium satellite phone company, and which involved many thousands of man hours to plot the history of their movements. It also contradicts the statement by Customs and Excise official Mr. Brian Smyth at the joint task force press conference last week, when he likened the illegal transportation of the massive volume of cocaine to the shipment which was fortuitously intercepted off the west Cork coast last year.

The new European maritime analysis and operation centre for narcotics only became operational on 25 July 2007, three weeks after the Dunlough Bay event. I have heard of delays in the operation of Government organisations all my political life, but I have never heard of one beginning before its starting date.

Will the Minister confirm that neither the Garda, the Naval Service, nor Customs and Excise were tracking the movements of the yacht named Lucky Day before 2 July 2007? Will he confirm that neither he nor any State agency, including the Garda, the Naval Service and Customs and Excise were aware that any other agency was tracking this vessel before 2 July 2007? Will he also confirm that there was no Garda, Customs and Excise or Naval Service operation in progress on 2 July 2007 to monitor the movements of this vessel and its occupants or the activities of others on land, which led to the arrest of the four men subsequently convicted or others who may have been involved in this illegal attempt to import drugs into this country before the communications received from the local coast guard unit to a member of the Garda on 2 July 2007? Will the Minister also congratulate the professional work and expertise of the Coast Guard unit, which arrived first on the scene and raised the alarm with the authorities?

The Minister for Defence often has a great turn of phrase, but in this case I think we can call it "premature recollection".

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