Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am talking about the issues that are currently at the core of this controversy around the illegal recording of conversations in and out of Garda stations. I assume the Minister thinks these are really serious issues. In all of his answers, the Minister has said he was not told about these serious issues. The Taoiseach briefed myself and the Fianna Fáil leader and told us that he phoned the Attorney General about an unrelated matter on Sunday evening and the Attorney General told him, when they had dealt with that issue, that she had a very serious issue she needed to discuss with him. They met and the Attorney General then told the Taoiseach about this issue of the illegal recordings of phone calls in and out of Garda stations.

When did the Attorney General give this information to the Minister? Does he have any explanation as to why the Attorney General told the Taoiseach and not the Minister, as he has suggested?

The Taoiseach also told the Dáil that he sent the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality to talk to the former Garda Commissioner before he resigned. Is it appropriate that the Taoiseach should send the Secretary General of the Minister's Department on this mission given that he is the Minister responsible?

Is it appropriate that the working group does not have representation from the Department of Justice and Equality on it and that the Minister does not even know who is on it and that he never thought to ask who is on this working group? Is this not of concern to him? He also said he did not receive the former Garda Commissioner's letter of 10 March, which he said his Department received on 10 March, and that he did not receive it until yesterday. Has he established why this was not brought to his attention before then, working on the assumption that we are both agreed these are extremely serious matters?

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