Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----to develop the structures and guide the enabling legislation through the House to put an independent policing authority in place. Issues such as the legal basis for taping conversations and the privacy issues that arise may also require a legislative, if not a constitutional, response.

This matter is not only confined to Ireland. A number of high-profile incidents in the past 12 months have underlined the importance of an adequate response. Employees of the News of the World accessed the telephones of many citizens in the UK. One aspect of that matter is being decided in a high-profile case before the courts in London. Mr. Edward Snowden's allegations are a recurring theme in the media. Issues such as US intelligence services monitoring the telephone calls of European leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel are of serious concern. The Boston College tapes also raise a series of issues that Sinn Féin might see fit to address in the Dáil in due course.

My main point is that, while the issue of establishing a policing authority is of paramount importance and the Government must set about that task forthwith, other issues will arise. I look forward to Mr. Justice Nial Fennelly's report with interest.

Two aspects of the manner in which Deputy Shatter was pursued disturbed me deeply, the first of which was the exaggerated positions adopted by many Deputies. A Sinn Féin Deputy stated on television that she did not believe a word coming out of the Minister's mouth. When challenged on that, she claimed that she did not believe anything that the Government stated on this issue. Contrast that with her total belief in the statement from her leader that he was never a member of the IRA and that he had nothing to do with the Jean McConville disappearance or the other people who disappeared when the Boston tapes, to which I have referred, have fully recorded his place in that.

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