Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

Very well, I will wrap up fairly quickly. A critical point in this regard is that the Pentagon itself conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib affair, which had a devastating impact on the Americans' efforts in Iraq at the time. The resulting report found against CACI personnel and stated they were involved in the abuse of prisoners, had not been properly trained, had lied to investigators and were incompetent. This information is contained in the Pentagon's own report. I tabled a question to the Taoiseach in April on this issue and received a response from the Government and the CSO. It stated that CACI UK Limited, which is a subsidiary of the group that allegedly is responsible for these heinous crimes, and which the United States Pentagon considers to be responsible for them, presented the best value for money. Is this how standards now are assessed in Ireland? Is it the case that we do not care about the reputation of a private company which gains access potentially to highly sensitive information on behalf of the people and which possibly could pass on such information to external intelligence services for whatever purpose? Is it the case that we have no concern about the damage to our reputation caused by this? I cannot let the motion under discussion pass without putting this on the record.

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