Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said that he doesn’t know the identity of an alleged Russian spy in the Oireachtas, as he criticised the leaking of State intelligence.
The Defence Minister rejected assertions that he was aware of the identity of the individual, codenamed as Cobalt, while questioning how the information came into the public domain over the weekend.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Mr Martin said that “When I was Taoiseach… I received security briefings but I was never told and never briefed that there was a spy in the Oireachtas.
“I’m actually very surprised at the degree everyone heard, just grabbed on the story and said: ‘this is it, who is the person?’”
Mr Martin said that there were fundamental questions to be asked, citing that since he took over as defence minister he had not received a briefing about a spy in the Oireachtas.
“There may be, there may not be, but I’ve never been briefed.
“There’s an issue of accountability in terms of our intelligence services, because if this is true, someone gave this information out and I don’t think that’s acceptable actually.”
Mr Martin said that future governments and the Oireachtas must be “clear-eyed” about the need for accountability chains within intelligence services.
Mr Martin said that while the Defence Forces do a good job in intelligence gathering, he does have concerns about how the information leaked into the public.
The Tánaiste was responding to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who said that it was “scandalous” and “treacherous” for an individual potentially to be working for the interests of a foreign government.
In recent days, a number of senior politicians have privately said that they believed the individual involved should come forward and have their actions and the revelation scrutinized.
