Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I am even more confused than I was before the Taoiseach started. Will the Taoiseach advise us whether Deputy Shatter has resigned as Minister for Defence also?

The root of this issue is Garda accountability. This is a more serious issue than the issue of the Minister himself. He defended lock, stock and barrel the operation of the Garda when Deputy Wallace moved legislation last summer calling for reform. It has been our experience that GSOC desires to be what it was set out to be - a body to oversee complaints relating to the Garda force - but that it has been made toothless by the existing legislation.

I am not sure what the Taoiseach's implication is when he says GSOC had difficulties in providing information to Mr. Guerin. Is he saying GSOC could not find the information he asked for, or that it did not want to or was not willing to co-operate? What the Taoiseach said is a sort of veiled information. Would the Taoiseach agree with me that it is clear now that the issues around the Cooke inquiry with regard to the bugging of GSOC, which seems to be central to this whole issue, must now be brought under a proper commission of inquiry and that we must now take this opportunity to revitalise, redevelop and reconstitute An Garda Síochána in a manner that has not been done since the foundation of the State?

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