Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First and foremost, I am sure everybody in the House wants to offer his or her deepest sympathy following the events in Manchester. The truth is that there is terrorism all around us. In the modern world terrorists can move from country to country. They can operate in cells, lie in hiding and await being called and we saw what happened last night when, apparently, one slight gap in the security system at the Manchester Arena allowed a terrorist to blow himself and 22 other human beings to kingdom come. I have spoken previously in this Chamber about the National Security Committee which consists of six persons, four of whom are secretaries general of Departments, one of whom is the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, while the other is the Garda Commissioner. There is nobody overseeing the committee which does not report to the Oireachtas which needs to have oversight. We do not need to know the minutiaeof what it does, but we do need to know that there is oversight and that there are plans in place. The co-operation about which the Taoiseach spoke this morning between the United Kingdom and Ireland is all very well, but the House of Commons and the House of Lords have oversight of the security organisations in the United Kingdom and receive have regular reports which are made available on a website. We do not have that luxury in this country. These are the Houses of the Oireachtas in which the people are represented. When will the Government put a director of national security in place who would report to the Oireachtas and confirm to and reassure it and the people that all of the various State agencies are working in unison? This is a vitally important issue and on a day like today it pains me to bring it up again. One of these days RTE will be reporting on a tragedy. We have had terrorism on this island and those who terrorised it also terrorised the rest of the United Kingdom. Let us not forget the Manchester bombings in the 1980s and the Birmingham bombings. The only way we can be assured that the various State agencies are working to maximum capacity is by having a director of national security to report to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Will the Leader ask the incoming Taoiseach, whoever he may be, to consider the establishment of that post?