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

The fact that nothing was purchased misses the key point. Why would the Irish Defence Forces deal with a company that has a very dubious international reputation? This company was named in 2012 by Reporters Without Borders as one of the corporate enemies of the Internet. It has been accused by the Citizen Lab, a digital rights group, of human rights abuses, of using and transferring software that was used to repress minority and dissident groups, journalists and so on in Africa and the Middle East. Their clients include European countries, the FBI, the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. These are the clients this company deals with. The Minister is telling us it was to do with developing and maintaining operational capabilities, but he is not giving us any details. No matter what the Government is buying, why it would go to a company like that is beyond me and the Minister could tell us more.

See this speech in context