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MINISTER FOR JUSTICE Alan Shatter said this evening that he has contacted the Garda Siochána Ombudsman’s Commission and asked it to clarify whether it believes it was under surveillance.
He has done so because of differences between what was said during the meeting with the Oireachtas Petitions and Public Service Oversight Committee yesterday, and what information he was given before he made a speech in the Dáil on the issue, prior to this.
Different answers
Shatter said tonight on RTÉ’s Prime Time show that he believed different answers were given with regard to particular issues during the Oireachtas committee meeting, and that “some of what was said during the course of that seemed to me to be a little confused and contradictory”.
He was given an oral and written brief on the situation after the Sunday Times published a story on claims of unlawful surveillance at the GSOC offices in Dublin.
The Justice Minister said that at no stage of this was he told that GSOC believed they were under surveillance, but that what was said was that abnormalities had been identified during a security sweep.
However, at yesterday’s Oireachtas committee meeting, chairman Simon O’Brien said that there are “indications we may have had some suspicion that something was surveilling us”, but that there is an issue of impreciseness around this.
Shatter said he acted on the information given him when he spoke in the Dáil and outlined the abnormalities detected.
He added that no information has been given to him to indicate that there was a threat of surveillance.
“I think it is important there is absolute clarity in regard to these issues,” he said, adding he thinks there “is now some confusion arising from the four hours of hearings that took place”.
He has now written to GSOC requesting these matters be clarified.
Information
Asked did he mislead the Dáil, Shatter said: “What motive possibly could I have to do that?”
As for if GSOC had been under surveillance, the minister said “it would be a matter of the greatest seriousness” if that had been the case.
“I’m not going to accuse anyone of giving us wrong information,” said Shatter.
Shatter said that if an inquiry took place, “it suggests we don’t have confidence in GSOC” if there is a need for someone else to inquire into GSOC’s own inquiry.
He had already ruled out an independent inquiry earlier today, and is due to appear before an Oireachtas committee on the issue next week.
The Minister concluded that he thinks “it’s very important the situation is dealt with in a calm [way]“.
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You can turn them off?
I have heard it all now. There is a disorder for everything
Pretty dependent on mine, but it’s pretty sad when you look at a group of people in a pub / restaurant and they’re all tapping away in silence together. I’m good at putting it away when I’m with friends / family
Yep, I am totally addicted to mine…it’s always by my side. If I leave the house without it I go straight back home to pick it up… Bit of a worry really!
Yup that’s me !! I panic tbh thought it was unhealthy alright ! Since I was 16 I have slept with my phone next to me !! Lol it sounds crazy when I think about it! I’m more afraid of misplacing my phone than misplacing my friend lol
So have this.
Yeah i know someone like that.. wakes up in the morning and checks email twitter and FB. dont think she checks for texts of phone calls tho.
Shouldn’t it be called iPhobia?
It was inevitable really. We live in the information age where everything and anything can be done ‘via web’.. I’m addicted to mine, but tbh I think that’s an acceptable lifestyle in this day and age.
don’t give a monkeys about my phone, can easily go a day or two without checking it and i use a 5 year old 2g iphone
Well, it’ll probably be starting school in September so at least you’ll have the day to yourself.
Hahaha @David
This disease was rampant up until the end of the last century. Lead people to vandalise public phones (a phone in a glass box at the side of the street) by ripping off the hand set ( the part of the glass box you had to speak into)
You talking about me?
Haha does NOT apply to me at all! I have the most wonderful phone HTC RHYME and I never Ever know where it is and so never hear it ringing and so do not know who called or texted me. I am so bad that sometimes I see Txts only days later lol
Ah jaysus, couldn’t you have put up a picture of an iPhone. What the hell is that yolk
my worse case was the other night my friend got a tx and straight away all I could think was where is my phone, couldnt c it in my sight so spent ages looking for it for no reason…….is there a helpline for us yet???
duh of course its ok unless you’re from the 1920′s
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