Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is an appalling response. The debate later today will not be specifically about this issue, which the Taoiseach has camouflaged also. I did not say the Minister had said Deputy Mick Wallace had done anything wrong. The Taoiseach is a great man for answering questions that have never been asked and making points about points that have never been made. I never said that. Neither did Deputy Wallace say discretion should never be used. The point is that it was private information supplied to the Minister by the Garda and used in a debate to undermine a political opponent. There was a background of threatening innuendo that "if you question us too much, we will get you." That was the import of what the Minister was saying and that is what is distasteful about it - "Don't push this one too far, Deputy Wallace, because we have information." It was private information supplied by the Garda Síochána. By the Minister's own standards, he said this kind of behaviour involving the making public of information on the part of any Minister in any Government to undermine a political opponent was utterly unacceptable. The Taoiseach did not answer the question I asked him. Does he believe it is appropriate behaviour? Does he believe it is right for a Minister to reveal private information - the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has confirmed this - in the context of a debate to undermine a political opponent? Is that behaviour on the part of a Minister for Justice right or wrong?

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