Explosive GSOC fare leaves Shatter with serious questions to answer

Talking like he had just stepped out of a spy film, Garda Ombudsman Simon O’Brien lit up the Leinster House air with incendiary references to “threats”, “covert black-ops”, and “secret reports” swirling around his organisation.

Directly contradicting Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s earlier statement to the Dáil, the ombudsman made it clear he suspected the body charged with policing the police had been put under electronic surveillance and he could not rule out gardaí being suspects.

Stating the sophistication of the surveillance equipment he suspected of being used against the organisation was at “government level”, Mr O’Brien painted a picture of a deeply dysfunctional relationship between his office and the gardaí which led to his lodging a “highly critical” report to the minister listing his “dissatisfaction” with the force’s co-operation with his investigations.