Public Service Oversight Committee to meet GSOC

11 February 2014

Chairman of the Committee Pádraig Mac Lochlainn says: \"Since this story on suspected bugging at GSOC offices broke in a Sunday newspaper, the Committee has been following developments with deep unease. We approach tomorrow's meeting with open minds, seeking to garner a full understanding into the chain of events around this most serious matter. With proceedings to take place in public and webcast live, it will be a valuable opportunity for Members of the Commission to provide greater detail on what led them to suspect their offices were being bugged. Committee Members will be seeking further clarity on the GSOC statement released yesterday evening, which said that the investigation uncovered three technical and electronic anomalies.\"

As part of the Committee's orders of reference, it liaises with various Ombudsman offices, regulatory public bodies and bodies established for the purpose of redress. The meeting tomorrow is also expected to consider the challenges in the wider relationship between An Garda Síochána and GSOC. New protocols providing for enhanced co-operation between the Garda Síochána and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission were agreed last September.

The meeting takes place tomorrow Wednesday 12 February in Committee Room 3, LH 2000 at 4 pm. The meeting can be viewed online via this link.

Media enquiries to:
Paul Hand,
Communications Unit,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 4484
M: +353 87 694 9926

Committee Membership
Deputies: Richard Boyd Barrett, Michael Conaghan, Alan Farrell, Charles Flanagan, Noel Harrington, Michael Healy-Rae, Seamus Kirk, Michael Kitt, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Chair), Michael McCarthy, Helen McEntee, Michelle Mulherin, Derek Nolan (Vice-Chair), Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Mick Wallace
Senators: Jimmy Harte, Tony Mulcahy, Trevor Ó Clochartaigh and Susan O’Keeffe