Results 1,521-1,540 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: The problem is that GSOC has said that there is no evidence of Garda misconduct-----

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

Alan Shatter: The conclusion of GSOC is that there is no evidence of Garda misconduct. The Deputy has accepted other GSOC reports where Garda failures have been identified. He has a difficulty accepting a GSOC report where GSOC itself says there is no evidence of Garda misconduct. All the jumping up and down in the world does not establish Garda misconduct. On the issue the Deputy has raised, in the...

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

Alan Shatter: -----because the equipment that the security firm said cannot be acquired other than by governments is identifiable on the web for acquisition. It costs about €5,000 to acquire it-----

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

Alan Shatter: Yes. I am advised that is the case - I have not gone searching the web to find it. The security firm, Rits, that has looked at this has advised, first, that it is not correct to say this is technology that can be acquired only by governments. Second, an issue that arises is that this was presented as if it were some device on the street outside GSOCs’ offices or lurking close to...

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's first question relates to whether what I said in the Dáil on the Tuesday before last true. The answer is that it was. The passage in the brief which he cites is very interesting. It states "The investigation was launched on the basis that the Acting Director of Investigations was of the opinion that, to the extent that these threats could be proven". The threats we were...

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

Alan Shatter: Deputy Ó Snodaigh has missed something in all of this. I am advised that what he has stated is not the reason the investigation was initiated, and I am surprised the Deputy is saying that Mr. O'Brien was trying to backtrack last week. Mr. O'Brien was quite clear last week on the matter that ended up in the public domain on Sunday last. He said there was a document that had leaked from...

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

Alan Shatter: I will be a lot briefer.

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

Alan Shatter: I will take the Deputy's questions in reverse order. This issue arose at an extraordinarily early stage last week when people were demanding that there be some form of inquiry. I met with Mr. O'Brien and received a brief from him in writing and GSOC issued a statement. If one looks at it in the round, what occurred, based on the information I had, was that a security sweep was initiated by...

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 very happy to answer any questions I am asked but perhaps it may be of some minor help if Deputies could ask three questions to which I can reply and then come back to me because it is a little difficult to follow the entirety without taking extensive notes.

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 wish to confine anyone to the number of questions they ask but if I could just deal with them in some sort of order. The Deputy's first question was why did I fail to outline the fact that GSOC had undertaken a public interest investigation. I expressly said in my script that GSOC had commenced an investigation. I then proceeded to detail the outcome of the investigation. I...

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 happy to give this as much time as is necessary. I appreciate in respect of this matter that it is not always possible to give a short and succinct answer.

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

Alan Shatter: It is rather complex and a short answer could be misleading. I have no wish to comment on whether GSOC should have commenced the section 102 investigation at the point when it did. I have merely described the information on which the commission commenced it. That issue can be considered in the context of any matters of relevance to this by the judge who is going to conduct the inquiry. ...

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

Alan Shatter: Thank you Chairman. In advance, I would like to say that I have the remnant of the flu, so if my voice ebbs and wanes, I hope nobody will attribute it to anything else. I am very happy to be here. I am accompanied by two officials from my Department, Mr. Brian Purcell who is the Secretary General, and Mr. Michael Flahive, who is the assistant secretary general. They are both with me...

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 very conscious that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission received a technical report which, from its perspective and understanding of it, exposed what the commission saw, and what the documentation I received subsequent to my statement to the Dáil referenced, as vulnerabilities. The wording used last week was "potential threats", and in the final report it was...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: EU Directives (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: Council Directive 2001/55/EC deals with minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving such persons and bearing the consequences thereof. Article 5 of the Directive states that the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons shall be established by a...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Road Traffic Legislation (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: The report of the working group in question has been received and I have also recently received an update from the Garda authorities to the effect that the substantial technical and administrative arrangements required to bring the provision in question into effect remain under careful evaluation.

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Residency Permits (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: The person concerned has applied for a right of residency in the State, accompanied by a right to work, based on her parentage of an Irish born minor citizen child, and based also on the principles of the Zambrano Judgment. This application is under consideration at present. When consideration of this application has been completed, and a decision arrived at, the person concerned will be...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Work Permit Application Numbers (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: Visa required nationals who wish to migrate to the State to take up employment must, in the great majority of cases, obtain a work permit before applying for a visa to travel to the State. In a minority of cases, for example, where visa required nationals wish to migrate for periods of less than six months, a work permit may not be required but the person must apply for, and be granted, a...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Garda Recruitment (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I propose to take Questions Nos. 153, 154, 164 and 166 together. The Deputies will be aware that the Public Appointments Service are managing this recruitment process for the Garda Commissioner and as such I have no direct involvement in the matter. I have however been informed that the first stages of the recruitment competition have now been completed. Candidates who have qualified...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Road Traffic Offences (19 Feb 2014)

Alan Shatter: I am informed by the Garda authorities that thirty eight persons were arrested and charged in the Dublin Metropolitan Region Northern Division (Garda R and J Districts) for driving under the influence of an intoxicant from 1December 2013 to 5 January, 2014 (inclusive). It should be noted that the figures provided are provisional, operational and liable to change.