John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the appointment of the new Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald. I have not yet had the opportunity to do so in the House, so I wish her the best of luck. She was my boss in a previous existence elsewhere in this building. Her character will be well suited to the difficult role she will have to fulfil in the coming period in Government.

I wish to echo what previous speakers have said about the general discussion on the Cooke report and other investigations which have either been completed or are currently ongoing. The ultimate duty of this House and of the Government is to ensure that the public have confidence in the Garda Síochána. It would be remiss not to acknowledge that that confidence has been somewhat shaken over the past few months or even longer.

As Deputy Heydon pointed out, morale within the Garda force has been at a very reduced level in recent months. For the effective administration of justice in any democracy, it is important to have such public confidence in the police force. That is why I welcome the fact that the Minister is committed to introducing reforms in that area, including the establishment of a policing authority. In addition, extra powers will be given to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission which has an important role to fulfil. I fully support and endorse those measures.

As regards the Cooke report, a lot of conspiracy theories have been floated in this Chamber and elsewhere concerning the technical anomalies that were found by the original GSOC analysis of this issue when it first arose. However, GSOC itself has pointed out that it did not find any definitive evidence that it was under technical or electronic surveillance. That was the finding of the initial report carried out by GSOC. It did, however, find a number of technical or electronic anomalies that could not be explained.

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Mr. Justice Cooke stated in his report that the evidence does not support the proposition that surveillance of the kind asserted in the Sunday newspaper article took place or that it was carried out by members of An Garda Síochána. These are the most important sentences in the reports. Surveillance and counter-surveillance is a difficult area in which to determine with absolute certainty what is going on. Both of the reports that have been prepared independently on this matter point out there was no evidence of electronic or technical surveillance of the headquarters of GSOC. One can have all the smoke and mirror conspiracy theories one wants but these are the two most important sentences as far as I am concerned.

Mr. Justice Cooke stated in his report that the officers of GSOC acted in good faith in their initial investigation because they were trying to get to the bottom of the anomalies they had identified. The investigations failed to show there was electronic surveillance of the type suggested in the original media coverage. It is difficult to prove a negative, however, and that is why certain Members of this House and others are still saying that questions remain unanswered. I do not subscribe to those assertions because it has been shown that the technical anomalies identified in the GSOC headquarters were not of a type that would lead anybody to believe beyond any reasonable doubt that there was electronic surveillance. It is important that the Minister continues her efforts to build a proper relationship between GSOC and the Garda Síochána in order that the public has full confidence in the Garda.

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