Still nothing to see here, Shatter?

THE story broke in The Sunday Times on February 9. In a security sweep the previous autumn, it had been discovered that there were three potential security breaches of communication systems in the office of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, located on Dublin’s Capel St.

The sweep was carried out by a UK firm Verrimus, which had extensive experience in the area.

By the following day, the Government was focused on damping down the story. Taoiseach Enda Kenny misquoted the law and suggested GSOC should have informed the justice minister about the issue. The story, the line went, was the failure to keep Alan Shatter informed of what was going on, not whether somebody was bugging GSOC.

That evening, GSOC chair Simon O’Brien was carpeted by Shatter. O’Brien issued a statement after the meeting saying there was “no evidence of garda misconduct”. This was in reaction to speculation that the only body of people who may be interested in bugging GSOC was the gardaí.

Cue outrage from Garda commissioner Martin Callinan. “It is a cause of grave concern that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission’s statement contains a clear indication that An Garda Síochána was in some way suspected of complicity in this matter despite GSOC’s overall finding that the existence of technical and electronic anomalies could not be conclusively explained.”

The following day, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors was calling for O’Brien’s head. What had started out as a story about communication breaches of the GSOC office was quickly turning into one about GSOC incompetence, as if the watchdog was itself responsible for being bugged. Thereafter, through a series of media and Oireachtas appearances, all the parties set out their respective stalls.

On Tuesday evening, Shatter told the Dáil there was nothing to see here. There was no “definitive evidence” of a bugging, but the failure of GSOC to tell him about it “is a matter of substantial concern to me”.

The next evening, O’Brien told an Oireachtas committee he had ordered the security sweep as he had been highly suspicious that there was an attempt to breach security. This was at odds with Shatter’s “nothing to see here, folks” line.

Meanwhile, elements of the media lost the run of themselves. The Irish Independent concentrated on whether O’Brien should go, while for RTÉ News, the main issue was who was leaking the story to The Sunday Times. A recently arrived alien might conclude that most of the power centres were concerned with diverting attention from the possibility that somebody had been at least trying to bug GSOC’s offices.

By Thursday, Shatter was telling Prime Time that O’Brien and his fellow commissioners were a touch confused at the Oireachtas hearing. “Indeed, some of what was said during the course of that seemed to me to be a little confused or contradictory,” he said.

Callinan was out to bat again the following day. “I want to unequivocally state that at no stage was any member of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission or any of its members under surveillance by An Garda Síochána.”

He didn’t state how he knew for a fact that none of the 13,000 members could have engaged in any such activity.

The following week, Shatter revealed he had commissioned his own report on the bugging. As was his wont, he was unable to do anything but proceed in a bullheaded fashion. A “peer review” of Verrimus’s work by an Irish firm, Rits, had concluded that “no bugging” had taken place. This paper-based exercise, undertaken over three days, heightened confusion. In delivering the news, Shatter appeared unable to keep from his tone a triumphant note. Bugging, what bugging?

Now everything was clear as mud. Had the people in the UK firm been watching too much James Bond? Was it all, as the minister appeared to want us to believe, a ball of smoke? In the end, the only hope of restoring leaking confidence in both the gardaí and GSOC was to have an inquiry. Retired judge John Cooke was appointed to head it, with a report expected by Easter.

He was asked to examine the sequence of events leading up to the bugging claim and to assess whether there had been a breach of security. Since it was set up, much has changed. Two of the chief protagonists in the hoopla surrounding the story, Shatter and Callinan, are no longer in office; they left on foot of other elements of scandal to dog the force and the Department of Justice.

By Michael Clifford