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

I find the Taoiseach's response incredible and difficult to comprehend. I will read into the record what the Minister said: "I was not briefed on this matter until approximately 6 p.m. on Monday, 24 March 2014 in the Department of Justice and Equality". The Taoiseach said in his response to me that the Minister for Justice and Equality had assured him that he was not briefed about the letter at that meeting. Is that what the Taoiseach is saying?

It is inconceivable that the Minister would have been briefed by departmental officials at 6 p.m. on the Monday about the telephone recording system and would not have been told by them that a letter had been received two weeks earlier from the Garda Commissioner detailing in a reasonably comprehensive manner the background to this issue. What is even more incredible is that the Secretary General who received the letter from the Garda Commissioner under section 41 of the 2005 Act, which is a specific vehicle to facilitate correspondence of this type and gravity - it is not the type of correspondence the Secretary General would receive every week to give to the Minister - is the very man sent by the Taoiseach to the Garda Commissioner to tell him that he [the Taoiseach] and Cabinet Ministers were unhappy about this, even though it has been stated that Cabinet members knew nothing about this. I accept the point made by the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, that the Cabinet did not know about this. The message was conveyed to the Garda Commissioner that the Cabinet was unhappy about the matter and he needed to reflect on it.

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