I wish the Taoiseach and the Government well in the delicate negotiations, which are at a sensitive stage, in respect of the Good Friday Agreement. I sincerely hope these sensitive discussions will have a successful conclusion.

I want to raise the serious implications of the decision handed down today by the Special Criminal Court. A person, with a close association with a Member, was convicted of IRA membership, conducting the dual role of Dublin IRA brigade intelligence officer and that of an election agent for a Sinn Féin Deputy. When this matter was raised in 2003 the Taoiseach said this was rubbish and the situation did not exist. When did the Taoiseach become aware from intelligence briefings that the surveillance of movements of Members from both his party and mine was actively put under way by the persons concerned? I understand that up to 20 Members were not informed by the appropriate authorities that this surveillance of movements, observation or spying, was being conducted? Why have Members had to read this in the newspapers? This activity took place when the IRA was on ceasefire yet those convicted were on active duty. Will the Taoiseach confirm that they will not be released under any terms of the Good Friday Agreement?

I do not have any more details than Deputy Kenny. I understand that two men, Niall Binéad and Ken O'Donohoe, were today convicted and sentenced to four years for membership of the Provisional IRA. I do not recall that I am on record saying this was rubbish.

As I remember it, there were a few events around the same time involving the observation of certain activities by an off-duty garda who thought the persons involved were watching his home. In this case, a normal Garda patrol subsequently came across a van in which people were found. I recall the robbery of a pub in north Dublin in which a significant number of people engaged in establishing road-blocks. The manager of the pub was kidnapped from his home. A number of similar incidents occurred at the same time.

What kind of activity was it?

It was severe, criminal activity. I do not recall ever saying these cases were nonsense. People were arrested and charged.

Deputy Kenny asked when I had knowledge that information was gathered about a previous Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Minister for Finance and other Deputies. I was not given the information in a security briefing until the court cases were held. Obviously, it is a very serious matter that people were engaged in gathering information on Members of the elected assembly of the Houses of the Oireachtas for criminal, paramilitary or whatever other purposes. It is being dealt with by the courts.

The issue of the involvement of the accused in activities prior to April 1998 does not arise in the context of the release of prisoners under the Good Friday Agreement. The individuals concerned will serve their sentences as have over 40 others who have been arrested and sentenced for paramilitary and criminal activities over the last number of years. The imprisonment of these people represents the success of the Garda special units which have been working to counter their activities. That is my information.

To be very clear, I have never seen a detailed security briefing on what these individuals were really about.

The Taoiseach assures the House that he never saw an intelligence briefing on this matter. The Garda only became aware of it after a Deputy and the party involved rang the Garda station in Bray on two occasions to inquire about the person who was the second to be convicted of IRA membership in the case under discussion. The Deputy rang the station on the assumption that the first-named person had been arrested. The story appeared in the Irish Independent on 26 January last year, at which stage the Taoiseach said he knew nothing about a spying operation. The matter was then dropped. Am I to understand that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform was not aware of the matter? If one reads between the lines of replies or comments by the Minister to a Sinn Féin Deputy last year, it appears he might have known from intelligence briefings what was going on.

Can the Taoiseach inform the House whether the intelligence gathered by the Army and the Garda is being made available to the International Monitoring Commission to inform their brief on the activities of the IRA? The Taoiseach will recall that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform said last year that the Provisional IRA was involved in criminal activity in Dublin Port. Does the Taoiseach consider that the International Monitoring Commission should be provided with information on the activities of members of the IRA in the Republic? If the members have been convicted in this jurisdiction, they are obviously operating here. I say that without wishing to infringe in any way on the current, sensitive events surrounding the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement.

I accept completely what Deputy Kenny says. I do not consider the issues to be related either. While the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform always has knowledge of security initiatives, I am aware of them in the context of Northern Ireland. I am not aware of normal issues occurring here. If the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform had raised any of these issues when the people in question were charged, it would have been completely inappropriate. It would have affected a conviction through the legal system. Whether the Minister knew or not, it would have been inappropriate to raise the matter in the House. As has happened on previous occasions, reference to the matter here would have been used to try to help Niall Binéad and his colleague, Kenneth Donohoe, to avoid prosecution for the serious offences in question.

I had no information other than what has come out in court and do not to this day. Apparently, the two men and perhaps others associated with them had documents relating to a former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the movements of Dáil Members. The information outlined in the courts refers to very serious offences which, as Deputy Kenny correctly says, have nothing to do with current events.

The activities of these people and the question of why they should have been gathering such information is a serious matter. The men have been sentenced to four years imprisonment for their activities, but I still do not know what the motive for tracking, following and detailing the activities of Members of this House. It remains to be proven what it was all about. It should be remembered that the sentences were imposed for IRA membership, which does not resolve the issue of information gathering.

Is it correct that they will not be released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement?

Without checking, a distinction is made between those who committed offences prior to 10 April 1998 and those who have done so since then. People who have committed offences since 10 April 1998, of whom there are many, have not been able to avail of the provisions of the Agreement. At last count, approximately 40 people were imprisoned, many of whom are serving very long sentences.