Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in raising the question of what have been referred to as anomalies at the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. Although I do not agree with him on most issues, I support the call made by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, on his way into the Cabinet meeting this morning for the commission to clarify what it means by "anomalies".

The Government response to this issue has been poor in the extreme. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, seemed mainly concerned with complaining that he, as Minister, should have been told about it first. We had the Taoiseach talking rubbish from abroad, apparently not even fully briefed on the relevant legislation, and echoing the line that the Minister should have been informed of what was happening. We had a representative of the commission effectively telling us last night, through the media, that the commission had come to a dead end with its investigation but, by the way, the Garda Síochána was not implicated. That looks dodgy to me. Delegates from the commission will come before the relevant Oireachtas committee tomorrow, but the question arises as to what they will be allowed to tell us.

What is required is an announcement, before the end of the day, of a full independent inquiry into this matter. Indeed, we should have had an announcement this morning that some international body would be invited to examine the situation. This is up there with the Arms Trial. It is up there with a murderer being found in the Attorney General's apartment in the early 1980s.

We are talking about the most important arm of the State from a justice perspective. The people who oversee the police force and the legal apparatus of the State are saying there were anomalies and may have been bugs. We have the Garda Síochána saying it had nothing to do with it and the representative organisations calling on the chairperson of the Ombudsman commission to consider his position. Ministers are running around in circles, more concerned about knowing first. This is a disaster. Who is running the country? Who is in charge of our justice system? Where does the buck stop? We need to know. The only way we will get that in a way people can be confident of is through an international, independent inquiry as a matter of utmost urgency. It should be given a couple of weeks to report. Then we can know what is going on, who was listening to who, why, and what implications there are for the security of the State.