Results 1,381-1,400 of 19,162 for speaker:Alan Shatter

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I do not know. We are getting into such a weird area at this stage. I cannot account for people's level of paranoia. I am not aware of any journalist being under surveillance. That is all I can tell the Senator. I am aware that we have a system in place where a High Court judge can exercise oversight in certain circumstances.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I cannot add any further, Chairman, to this. We have now gone way outside the issue that we are dealing with.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: We are now seemingly getting generally into the issue of surveillance. It is not normal or appropriate that the Minister for Justice and Equality, for a whole range of security reasons, enters into lengthy dialogue on surveillance issues. I gave the Senator that simple reply. No doubt we will have a headline tomorrow, "Minister for Justice refuses to deny that journalists under surveillance".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I am unaware of any journalist under surveillance-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: -----of an authorised nature by the Garda Síochána or any other body in the State. Of course if a journalist was engaged in criminality of some kind that gave rise to some issue I could not guarantee-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: -----that if a journalist wanted to rob a bank, or trade in drugs, would not, at some stage, be under surveillance. They would not be under surveillance because they were a journalist; they would be under surveillance for other reasons. I do not know of any journalists under surveillance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: No, I did not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I have had no conversations with the Garda Commissioner about journalists who may or may not be under surveillance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I believe that we are going back to where we started four hours and ten minutes ago. Simon O'Brien on page 14 of the transcript of the hearing before this committee last week said: The security check, a security sweep, initially was in relation to a general level of risk to identify risks and mitigate these risks. I had nothing in my mind to say we were under surveillance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: He did. What he said at the start appeared to give rise to the possibility that it was not the case. Later he explained it when he was asked. Of course, and unfortunately, I have said - I have been criticised for saying it - that some confusion was created as a consequence of the appearance of members of GSOC before this committee. I think the Senator and other Deputies before the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: No. At no stage-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: At no stage was it suggested to me that the sweep undertaken had anything to do with the Kieran Boylan matter. If the Senator looks at the brief I received, it is not referenced. I cannot, at this stage, recall was it Mr. FitzGerald or Mr. O'Brien - but one of them - specifically said that the Kieran Boylan matter was concluded, reported upon, complete before they moved to arrange for any...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I shall answer each question as the Deputy raises them. No, I do not know the name. All I know was - I think this was said last week - that when GSOC wanted to do the sweep it tried to find the company but found that it had gone out of business. I do not know the name of that company and I have not asked.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: Yes. There is a process with which the Deputy may be familiar whereby there is oversight by a High Court judge of certain types of surveillance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: The Garda Commissioner publicly-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: The Deputy is addicted to conspiracy theories.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I am afraid that the Deputy and I will have to disagree.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I think Deputy Clare Daly is probably fond of asking someone when he stopped beating his wife. We are going around in ever decreasing circles. I cannot add further to what I have said or to what members of GSOC have said on these matters.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I think that is a reasonable question. I have been asked questions at this meeting and have honestly and truthfully done my best to respond to them. It is important, whether we are talking about GSOC, An Garda Síochána or any other body, that if there are issues of concern, they be dealt with and addressed. I have said these are all matters at which the High Court judge will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Surveillance Issues: Minister for Justice and Equality (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: Since becoming Minister, I think the public has had a lot of confidence in An Garda Síochána. We know from the statistics published by the Central Statistics Office that the level of crime overall is down by about 7.5%, that the number of burglaries is down by in excess of 8%, that figures in 12 of the 14 categories of crime are down, that we see important arrests on a daily basis...