Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply. In the past two weeks some people have expressed surprise that the Minister has not attended meetings of the National Security Committee. I appreciate that political attendance at these meetings has not been a feature until this point. However, some people have expressed surprise that neither the Minister nor the Taoiseach has attended these meetings or even insisted on attending them.

I tabled a number of parliamentary questions about the capacity of An Garda Síochána in this regard. One of the replies threw up the information that An Garda Síochána did not keep a record of the number of officers in the force who could speak languages that might be useful in monitoring the overseas terrorist threat. Will the Minister comment on that issue?

The Minister said she believed a threat was possible but unlikely. We have no reason to disbelieve her. However, there is no way of corroborating, examining or informing ourselves more on the level of threat. What is the position of the Minister and the Government on having the matter of security examined by the Oireachtas or one of its committees? In the United Kingdom Parliament the Intelligence and Security Committee was established under the Intelligence Services Act 1994 to examine policy, administration and expenditure on the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service and Government Communications Headquarters. It was reformed and amended by an Act of the UK Parliament in 2013. Will the Minister, on behalf of the Government, comment on the capacity of the Oireachtas to examine security related issues? As she is aware, we do not have and have not had an opportunity heretofore to question, for example, the Garda Commissioner about them. There has been no political oversight or input.

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