Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I, like other Members of the House, have sat through two long committee hearings on the matter already and a session of statements in the Dáil Chamber on the possible surveillance of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission's offices in Capel Street. In all of that period - there was another four-hour committee meeting today - I have become more and more convinced that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission had solid reasons to believe its security was breached to such an extent as to justify it bringing in an international team of counter-surveillance experts from abroad. It said at the time that it was "quite proportionate and sensible to look elsewhere".

Such was the level of its concern it did not trust Irish companies, many of which have links with An Garda Síochána and retired gardaí.

Major problems have been highlighted which still have not been addressed. The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has tried to state this was a routine counter-surveillance sweep and a routine measure. The office of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission opened in 2007 and this was the last time a sweep was done. Even at that stage the Irish company which took part in the sweep did not find the rogue Wi-Fi system, which was in place at the time. This suggests incompetence and supports the view GSOC could not trust Irish companies to deal with the level of counter-surveillance required.

GSOC stated it decided to conduct the sweep because of its heightened public profile, but it also stated it was because some members involved in public discourse were exceptionally well-informed. This suggests leaks somewhere. In its report the company tasked with the sweep, Verrimus, stated it was engaged due to suspicions the offices were under surveillance by the Garda Síochána. This is supported by the fact GSOC initiated a public interest investigation believing such surveillance may have originated within An Garda Síochána, according to Simon O'Brien. This is another reason.

We know, because it is well documented, that in the period running up to the counter-surveillance sweep there were tensions between the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and An Garda Síochána with regard to a number of inquiries it was carrying out, including on the penalty points scandal and misuse by members of An Garda Síochána of a drug smuggling informer, Kieran Boylan. We have also now been made aware the chairman of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission was concerned the Garda Síochána Commissioner, Martin Callinan, had information about the internal workings of a GSOC inquiry, namely, access to a draft report, and that this emerged during a meeting between the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána and Simon O'Brien.

Today the Minister tried to dismiss this as being the trigger for the measures GSOC took to identify the source of the threats to its security and operational integrity. He tried to put it down to the UK operatives of Verrimus misunderstanding chatty GSOC staff. He also tried to dismiss and ridicule security threats identified by Verrimus. He stated nothing untoward occurred. He tried to make little of the fact that at no stage could anybody state categorically or rule out that surveillance was carried out by members of An Garda Síochána. He dismissed it at the committee meeting only a few minutes ago, stating that saying there is no definitive evidence members of An Garda Síochána were not carrying out surveillance of the office as being akin to asking when did one stop beating one's wife, which is a strange choice of words given the history of the Garda Síochána heavy gang in the 1970s.

It is important this is properly addressed. It was the Opposition and journalists who injected urgency into this and not the Minister or the Government. We forced the issue. It is now urgent it is properly investigated, and not investigated in the way the Minister has proposed.

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