Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I am very interested in the Tánaiste's views on Garda accountability and what happens next in the context of the Cooke report. We have heard from acting Commissioner O'Sullivan that gardaí have been exonerated from any wrongdoing in her opinion. Her words were very similar to those of former Commissioner Callinan who told us before the inquiry that at no stage was any member of An Garda Síochána involved. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, has told us that the report does not support evidence of actual surveillance much less that it was carried out by gardaí. The former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, issued a press statement telling everyone he did a great job and had dealt with these matters in a straightforward, truthful and comprehensive way. GSOC welcomed the fact that it was found to have acted in good faith. In other words, everyone was right and we are where we were.

However, there is a very large elephant in the room. The fact that everyone is calling that a kitten does not make it any less of an elephant. The elephant in the room is the huge divergence between the report itself and the way in which it is being spun. The reality is that the Cooke report did not find any truth and it did not find any answers because it was constructed in a manner that ensured it would not. The title of the report refers to an investigation into unlawful surveillance. There was no attempt to discover whether lawful surveillance had taken place. As the Tánaiste knows, there is a legislative provision which makes it lawful for senior gardaí to allow other senior gardaí to surveil somebody else. We are told there was no evidence of Garda involvement. I was going to ask how Mr. Justice Cooke knows, but he is a former Justice not a Justice now. How does Mr. Cooke know this when not a single Garda was interviewed? There was no examination of logbooks and Garda equipment. There was no stock check on IMSI catchers and all the rest of it. The biggest security threat identified by Verrimus was the ring back, the chances of which being benign were virtually zero according to professionals. That was no explanation.

What does the Tánaiste think of the report? It tells us that the photographers at the airport photographing Verrimus could have been members of the Garda security branch.

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