Results 61-80 of 145 for gsoc 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: It is quite simple because the Deputy likes to make a mystery of it. There is no authorised surveillance of GSOC of any description.

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

Alan Shatter: By anybody. Why would there be authorised surveillance of GSOC? We are in the realms of total fantasy at this stage.

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 not sure whether I can speak on behalf of the Revenue Commissioners but I have absolutely no idea why the Revenue Commissioners would be authorising surveillance of GSOC.

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 have not asked the Defence Forces whether they have been bugging GSOC because there is no possibility that they have been doing so. I know it is a narrative to which the Deputy is very attached.

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

Alan Shatter: Yes, the Wi-Fi system was capable of connecting, because it did. However, that did not indicate that GSOC was under surveillance. It is quite clear from the conclusion of Verrimus that GSOC’s Wi-Fi was not 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: ...know, they were up to something - we’re the people who did the examination, we’re the people with the evidence. We do not have any evidence to point in that direction.That is not me. That is Kieran FitzGerald, a member of GSOC. We are finishing exactly at the point from which we started, namely, the reason it is a good idea for a High Court judge to look at this. It seems...

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

Alan Shatter: No, Chairman. I shall give them to the High Court judge. GSOC does not want the reports published.

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. I published the brief I received from GSOC. These are security reports which I will furnish in full to the High Court judge who will have the technical expertise relating to 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: ...what is appropriate in the context of the technical expertise he has. I understand Verrimus has said it is willing to answer any questions raised of the High Court judge. Rits will do the same. GSOC has said it will co-operate with the review.

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

Alan Shatter: I would like to deal with all of these points. The Deputy said that GSOC is toothless on my watch but on my watch GSOC produced the Kieran Boylan report - that was not toothless.

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 has asked me a question to which I am responding. GSOC has produced the Kieran Boylan report and its annual reports and it has - as it is entirely appropriate and as it is entitled to do, when necessary, as was referenced last week - voiced public criticism of matters of concern. It is not toothless, it has been independent, assertive and has raised issues. The chairman of GSOC,...

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

Alan Shatter: Not only was this a subject of conversation with Commissioner Simon O'Brien, it was also the subject of the correspondence I sent to GSOC subsequent to its engagement with this committee. I got a response that did not add to my sum of knowledge. All of that correspondence will go to the High Court judge.

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

Alan Shatter: ...function. He set out a series of questions in respect of what were obviously matters of concern to him. Subsequently, a meeting took place between the Garda Commissioner and the chairman of GSOC. I am not - any more than the members of the committee - privy to the conversation that took place between them. It seems that is where matters rest. Quite clearly the Garda Commissioner had...

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

Alan Shatter: ...at all funny. I am in a position where I get beaten up if I do and I get beaten up if I do not. Questions were put to me, to which members expected me to respond, about my engagement with GSOC, the meetings I have had, and whether I had reservations about any particular matters. I truthfully replied to those questions. If I had taken the position that I did not believe I should reply,...

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

Alan Shatter: The DPP is entirely different because it has no statutory reporting obligations to the Minister for Justice and Equality. GSOC, on the other hand, does.

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

Alan Shatter: There are no exceptions in regard to the DPP. I am not suggesting the Senator would do this, but it has suited some parties to muddy the waters by asking why, if it is an independent body, should GSOC have to say anything to the Minister. The answer is very simple. The Garda Síochána Act 2005, which was enacted by the Senator's party in government, imposed an express obligation...

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 think I have talked to the Garda Commissioner about it. The Commissioner issued a statement in response to GSOC's press release on the Monday evening. I first saw that statement after it was issued, because the Garda Commissioner is independent. The next event that happened was that Mr. O'Brien reported to the committee. The following day, as I understand, the Garda Commissioner...

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

Alan Shatter: Let me explain the coffee shop issue, which is very straightforward. I received the section 103 report from GSOC. The section 103 report in the context of what Verrimus said detailed that the Wi-Fi issue was dealt with in the context of it being identified that in a business close by, there was a Wi-Fi system that accessed Bitbuzz. For some unexplained reason it was, on occasions, randomly...

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

Alan Shatter: ...Garda misconduct. That report dealt with very serious allegations of Garda misconduct and it resulted in the Morris tribunal. However, there are no allegations of Garda misconduct in this case. 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: ...company. The view was it was an appropriate and reliable company to carry out a peer review. The peer review might well have concluded by agreeing with all the information that Verrimus gave to GSOC. I did not know what the peer review was going to say. During the course of the peer review the company asked-----