Cooke report finds no evidence of bugging of GSOC
The Cooke report has found no evidence of surveillance at the offices of the Garda Ombudsman Commission.
However, the report by retired High Court judge John Cooke has found serious problems within GSOC, particularly its relationship with an Garda Síochána.
The report - published tonight after a special cabinet meeting at Government Buildings - finds no evidence of any surveillance being mounted at the GSOC offices in Dublin.
It has found that there were acceptable explanations for two alleged "anomalies" with GSOC's security systems, while a third anomaly was more common that GSOC or its own security advisors had suggested.
Justice Cooke's report found that the presence of a British mobile phone network was probably as a result of a mobile phone company testing its new 4G network, which was connected to its main British IT systems.
While a so-called "ring-back" issue could not be explained, Justice Cooke finds no evidence of Garda involvement - and also that there was no evidence that a wireless device in GSOC's boardroom had actually been connecting to an outside WiFi network.
The report admits that in the world of covert surveillance, it's extremely difficult to say for certain whether the security anomalies were the result of unlawful intrusion.
But while there is no evidence of surveillance, there are other issues in the report.
The report finds that in hindsight, GSOC's own internal investigation was not necessary - and that the suspicion of Garda involvement was influenced by GSOC's trouble in dealing with senior Gardaí.
