‘M’ keeps secret service a secret

HOW James Bond would have loved this: the Government is determined to ensure the Irish secret service remains exactly that - a secret.

In fact, according to Justice Minister Michael McDowell, there is no secret service in this country - despite the fact it has been allocated a budget of over €800,000 for next year.

It sounds like material straight from the world of the fictional super-spy.

In fact, it was the subject of a parliamentary question by Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, who asked Mr McDowell when the service was formed, its functions, the number of persons it employed, and where it was based.

Mr McDowell refused to yield under interrogation. In a written response, he told Mr Sargent: “There is no secret service structure in this jurisdiction.”

This is technically correct as instead of an official “secret service”, intelligence work is carried out by gardaí and the Defence Forces.

The Department of Finance controls the purse-strings, allocating the yearly budget for the intelligence apparatus.

The department has allocated €806,000 for the non-existent secret service in 2006, an increase of 2.5% on this year’s budget of €786,000.

Mr Sargent asked Finance Minister Brian Cowen to explain the increase, and whether it indicated that the “the threat to the State has increased in recent times [and whether] the service is responsible for monitoring suspected al-Qaeda members here.”

But Mr Cowen, too, refused to crack. “It is not the practice to divulge information or explanations relating to expenditure on this vote,” he said.

The air of mystery surrounding Irish intelligence services is in contrast to Britain’s MI6 and MI5, both of which are subject to parliamentary oversight. They also tell on their websites how people can join up or even complain about being spied upon.