Irish Secret Service 'should be monitored'
Foreign Affairs spokesman Gay Mitchell said the service was the only State organisation which was not accountable to the Dáil.
He is proposing the formation of an intelligence committee which would operate in closed session.
Figures released to the Public Accounts Committee earlier this week showed the service returned €540,000 of its €900,000 budget in 2002 because the money had not been spent.
No information has ever been released on how the budget of the service is used or the number of people it employs.
"In these times, when you've threats of terrorism, the way to account for the secret service fund and covert operations would be through an all-party intelligence committee in the Dáil," said Mr Mitchell.
The accounts of the secret service are approved by the minister for finance and one other minister. They are then signed off by the Comptroller and Auditor General, who does not look at the figures.
Mr Mitchell said the intelligence committee would be composed of the heads of the Public Accounts Committee, the Justice Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Leas Ceann Comhairle.
He acknowledged there would be inevitable concerns about the "leaking" of intelligence information but said there had been no such problems with similar committees in Britain and the EU. Much less is known about the Irish Secret Service than other intelligence agencies, such as the Israeli secret service, Mossad, Britain's M15 and the CIA, which have all have named directors. Decades of parliamentary questioning have revealed very little information.
Although some claim the service is made up of a small group of former gardaí, Mr Mitchell says its members are drawn from the Garda Special Branch, the army intelligence unit G2 and the diplomatic corps of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Its budget has fluctuated over the years, from £250,000 in 1986, when concerns about loyalist and republican paramilitaries were at a high, to £170,000 in 1992.
The spending crept steadily upwards in the 1990s and increased by 131% in the wake of September 11. The service was given an allocation of €737,000 last year and €700,000 for 2004. Mr Mitchell said the money was used for "purposes that the Government don't want to put down in writing".
"The nature of this service is such that, even if I had this information, it would not be in the public interest to give it."
CJ Haughey responds to a question by Gerry L'Estrange.
"The nature of secret service payments is such that to subject them to Dáil scrutiny would defeat the whole object of the expenditure."
John Bruton responds to query by Gay Mitchell.
"The purpose of the secret service is to obtain information necessary for the security of the State."
Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy responds to a question by Trevor Sargent.
"There is no secret service structure in this jurisdiction."
Justice Minister Michael McDowell responds to a query by Aengus Ó Snodaigh.
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