Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am satisfied that is the case and find it regrettable that the Deputy should raise any issue concerning the current Ombudsman for the Defence Forces. The person concerned was a judge in the military court, adjudicated on issues and there was never any question that he did so other than independently and objectively and with fairness. As the Deputy is aware, the issue he has raised has been part of an approach taken by way of litigation by PDFORRA.

I am not going to enter into that. Moreover, the Deputy should be careful not to cast aspersions on the capacity, independence and objectivity of the current Ombudsman for the Defence Forces. The Deputy says it is not his intention to do so, before asking questions which seem to do exactly that. I said to him on a previous occasion that I find his continuing concerns for whistleblowers touching, given that some of his former colleagues in the Provisional IRA had little concern for such people. Their remedy was a bullet in the back of the neck.

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