O’Dea attacks ‘hypocritical’ Sinn Féin TD over questions

DEFENCE Minister Willie O’Dea yesterday accused Sinn Féin Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh of “blatant hypocrisy” after he tabled two parliamentary questions on military intelligence.

“Deputy Ó Snodaigh is the last person in the Dáil who should be asking who is the subject of intelligence files or whether the Irish Army possesses a lethal gas,” Mr O’Dea said. Instead of asking questions, Mr Ó Snodaigh should be answering a few, he added.

“When will Ó Snodaigh ask his close associate, the convicted provo, Niall Binead why he (Binead) was keeping files on the movements of a number of TDs including three former justice ministers?” Mr O’Dea asked.

The minister also asked Mr Ó Snodaigh when he intends to tell the Irish people why his election posters were found in a car alongside a canister of CS gas and a stun gun.

“When will Ó Snodaigh publicly denounce his friend Binead and tell us how Binead’s thumbprint was found by gardaí on a roll of black tape in Bray in 2002 in a car with false number plates which also contained a canister of CS gas, two pick-axe handles, a sledgehammer, a black balaclava, a blue flashing beacon and a yellow fluorescent jacket with the word ‘garda’ on it?”

Mr Ó Snodaigh had submitted a written question asking the minister to name the two deputies monitored by military intelligence. This was on foot of a newspaper report last week.

Mr Ó Snodaigh’s also asked if the Defence Forces had in its possession at any stage in the past 30 years stocks of the highly poisonous CR gas, dibenzoxazepine.

Mr O’Dea’s spokeswoman said he would not comment on who was subject to military intelligence for security reasons. A senior army officer confirmed the Defence Forces never held CR gas for training or any other purpose.

Meanwhile, Progressive Democrats Deputy Fiona O’Malley also attacked Mr Ó Snodaigh over his Dáil remarks about the unacceptable levels of violence against women.

Ms O’Malley asked: “Is there no end to the hypocrisy and the double-speak of Sinn Féin members? “This is the same party that refused to call the brutal murder of Jean McConville, a mother of 10 children, a crime.”

Mr Ó Snodaigh accused Mr O’Dea and Ms O’Malley of engaging in a “pathetic attempt” to divert attention from their own Government’s failings.

Mr Ó Snodaigh said he made his comments on services for victims of domestic violence because Government funding in that sector has been frozen.

“I raised the entirely valid demand by the Coalition on Violence Against Women for 7 million in ring-fenced supplementary estimates for 2005 and a multi-annual funding package from 2006 onwards,” Mr Ó Snodaigh said.