Results 81-100 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: Perhaps I will finish my comments. I am keen to finish the other questions Deputy Creighton raised. During the course of the peer review, Rits had some queries about the equipment in the GSOC offices. A request was made to the GSOC offices to clarify some matters relating to equipment. As I understand it, the clarifications were provided. I do know the outcome of all this but I took the...

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

Alan Shatter: ...is on page 6 of the transcript, which is that he got this before Christmas and considered whether he should do it and he did not do it and he now regrets that decision. It was no more than that. GSOC operates under specific statutory obligations which are twofold. The first is that when an investigation is commenced, there is an obligation to inform the Minister "of progress". No such...

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

Alan Shatter: It was said I have been a disgrace, but the reality is that all I am doing is reporting what GSOC stated. GSOC stated that there is no evidence of Garda misconduct. It has been said that there is no evidence that the Garda had GSOC under surveillance. All I can do is repeat this. Did somebody else have GSOC under surveillance? We are back to the main issue. Anomalies were identified....

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 made what I think was supposed to be a critical reference to everybody "cosying up". The Garda Síochána performs a function, the Garda Commissioner performs a function, and GSOC performs its function. My role in all of this is to ensure the independence and integrity of both bodies, to address legislative issues that need to be addressed, to ensure that if one or other...

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

Alan Shatter: An investigation has already been conducted by GSOC and it has reached conclusions on that investigation. That is something that people have lost sight of throughout all of this. We have had confidence in GSOC when it reports Garda misconduct, and when it reports that there is no Garda misconduct and that there is no definitive evidence of surveillance, I must stand over the conclusions...

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

Alan Shatter: ..., which is why I did not attach huge importance to what the type of technology was; what I was concerned to report to the Dáil was the nature of the "anomaly" that was identified, its relevance to GSOC in a telephone context.

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

Alan Shatter: ...in the air. The first question the Deputy raised was: why did I so quickly say there was no Garda involvement for the alleged bugging? I did not, quickly, do anything. What I did was recite what GSOC told me, what Mr. Kieran FitzGerald said on "Prime Time". The answer was, "There is no evidence of Garda misconduct". If there was evidence of Garda misconduct I would say so. Kieran...

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

Alan Shatter: ...what I relied on, together with my conversation with Mr. O'Brien. The brief states: On 23 to 27 September 2013, in accordance with standard operating procedures, a security sweep was conducted of GSOC's Head Office. This was conducted by a UK security firm as the Irish firm that had previously conducted such operations for GSOC had gone out of business. Standard operating procedures gave...

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 not say that. It was absolutely right that an organisation like GSOC have an appropriate security firm undertake a security sweep and check on its offices to ensure that its systems were secure. It is right that this should happen with some regularity because of the extraordinary evolution and changes in technology. I was surprised that 2013 was the first occasion that such a...

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

Alan Shatter: ...the documentation, that this was not a reference to any of the three threats. I had difficulty fully understanding that because I had not been told about it. One of the issues apparently on which GSOC got advice-----

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

Alan Shatter: ...the reality is that they are extraordinarily vulnerable to any individual who may want to access what one is saying on the telephone or one's texts or e-mails, if one uses those on the telephone. GSOC explained what it did and I have some difficulties with it. Let the judge deal with why it believed it was necessary or even whether, by doing that, the commissioners were necessarily in a...

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

Alan Shatter: I had a conversation with Simon O'Brien and, as I stated, I was interested in learning whether any member of GSOC was utilising a UK network connected telephone. I was told that none of them had one. In the presentation that Mr. O'Brien made to the committee, he made a slight comment that maybe it could be changed to access other types of telephones. I genuinely do not know if that is the...

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 not the job of the High Court judge to investigate, but as it is part of the overall issue, the High Court judge may certainly raise questions about that matter. There is nothing to prevent GSOC continuing to do whatever it is doing. There are technical issues in dispute between Verrimus and Rits. Quite clearly there are differences between them on a number of matters and I think...

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

Alan Shatter: ...brief. Last week I was really concerned. Based on the knowledge I had up to Thursday, I was really concerned that if we had an inquiry into this matter, it would suggest a lack of confidence in GSOC. GSOC had investigated, reached conclusions, terminated the investigation and had found no definitive evidence of surveillance or of Garda misconduct. Since then I have received all the...

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

Alan Shatter: I can tell the Deputy that I am one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the work that is required of an organisation like GSOC. Way before he was in this House it was the type of body that I wanted to see in place. That is one of the reasons why, for example, we had to set up the Morris tribunal. It was because there was no body that existed that could independently investigate...

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 a one line response. I have no up-to-date information beyond what was shared with the committee by GSOC last Wednesday.

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

Alan Shatter: Of course it was mentioned by Mr. Simon O'Brien to me when he met me. He briefed me on GSOC's concerns. He advised me that it was investigating the leak, but I have not had a further conversation with him about that matter. Of course I know what he said to this committee; I read the transcript of the proceedings before the committee. As to where that investigation now stands and what...

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

Alan Shatter: ..., in fairness to the chairman of the commission, he made it very clearly that it took that matter seriously. I am very anxious that we get back to a space where there is full public confidence in GSOC. It does a very important job. I spent an amount of my time in this Parliament many years ago talking about the need to ensure we had accountability where there were allegations of Garda...

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

Alan Shatter: ...domain by contributing some credibility to it. However, it was addressed in the documentation I received. I think I mentioned at an early stage to Deputy Mulherin that two operatives within GSOC mistakenly believed that something had found its way into the public domain when this should not have happened and that this was the result of something said by a senior member of the Garda....

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

Alan Shatter: The chair of the commission expressed concerns about the fact that a leak had occurred and has a genuine and understandable concern that this is a very serious issue for GSOC. GSOC is conducting an internal investigation into this. It is my understanding that it has also sought legal advice. I know no more about that aspect of matters than members of the committee in the context of where...