“The report mentioned earlier that I received from RITS gives as an opinion, based on the reports provided for RITS, that “there is no evidence of any technical or electronic surveillance against GSOC”; that is, no evidence at all, not merely no definitive evidence. The report also disputes other conclusions reached by Verrimus. I appreciate that GSOC relied on the reports it had received from the security company it had contracted. I cannot ignore the report I received from the company asked to conduct a peer review of the technical documentation furnished by GSOC to me and the information accompanying it. Having regard to the differences that have arisen, the additional information I have received since I made my first statement to the Dáil, the ongoing nature of this controversy, its debilitating impact on the capacity of GSOC to get on with its work and the continuing overhang of suspicion voiced by some, despite the conclusions of GSOC, that the Garda Síochána or a member of the Garda Síochána was engaged in misconduct, I concluded that it was important to do what was possible and reasonable to bring an end to ongoing controversy.”

Justice Minister Alan Shatter – Tuesday, February 18, 2014

“Mr Shatter has failed to give us the alternative explanations that he said he would, and the committee is disappointed and alarmed by this. What he has sent us is non-committal, and just a series of queries, and based on it we have to be alarmed as to what he said in the Dáil. We would have to find at this stage in favour of the Verimus analysis based on what the minister has sent us. As things stand, we have to conclude that — for whatever reason — the minister was talking up the analysis of Rits and was talking down the findings of Verimus without justification. Is there a narrative here? Was the minister trying to disprove the allegations, rather than examine them? That is the concern and it is a very significant matter.”

Sinn Féin TD and chairman of the Public Services Oversight Committee, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn – in today’s Irish Examiner.

Previously: Putting It On Rits

Contradictions In Terms

Dáil transcript: kildarestreet.com

‘Alarm’ at Shatter’s failure to disprove bug claim (Irish Examiner)