Alan Shatter in opposition, questions the Minister for Justice [John O’Donoghue] on bugging in Garda stations (May 23 2001) during an exchange concerning the McBrearty scandal in Donegal.
Thanks Ronan Emmett and Paul Reynolds
Meanwhile…
“Chairman, at this stage it would be appropriate for the senior Garda authority to come clean in relation to bugging. It cannot be covered up. There are at least two hundred men alive at the moment, and women, probably a lot more, who know exactly what went on over the years, some of them are still serving in the job, and to try and cover it up on a nationwide scale, it can’t be done. It just can’t be done. It did happen. The equipment was bought and purchased at extensive cost to do it. It was not a universal approach, in certain cases they were done and it’s not just down to interview rooms. It’s houses, cars, apartments and phones. And it’s done illegally, totally illegally, and the senior Garda authority know this is the case.”
Garda John White during the subsequent Morris tribunal
(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)
