Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Yes. Let me finish. I will make an important point and statement. When I was Taoiseach on the dates concerning the allegations against this individual, I received security briefings but I was never told and never briefed that there was a spy in the Oireachtas, which to all intents and purposes is what the article in The Sunday Times asserted. I am very surprised at the degree to which everybody, herdlike, has grabbed onto the story and said, "This is it; who is the person?". I am absolutely amazed. There is a more fundamental question to be asked, which I will ask as Minister for Defence. As Minister for Defence, I have never received a security briefing stating there is a spy in the Oireachtas. There may be or there may not be, but I have never been briefed. There is an issue of accountability for our intelligence services because if this is true, then someone gave that information out. I do not think that is acceptable.

There is a broader issue. Future governments and the Oireachtas at large need to be very clear-eyed about the need, in a democracy, for intelligence services to have an accountability chain and be accountable. I argue, and a national security strategy is being developed, we lack that at the moment. I am not comfortable with the situation pertaining to intelligence. It is very important that we have intelligence in respect of the external dimension. Our Defence Forces do a very good and necessary job for the protection of our country. I have real concerns about how all of this has emerged into the public arena. I am somewhat surprised that politically it has all been in one direction and not in the other.

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