Vincent Kearney, RTÉ's current northern correspondent, believes the PSNI attempted to identify sources he worked with while with the BBC. His case came to light when two other journalists made similar allegations, namely that the PSNI had recorded their phone calls. On two occasions when I was talking to the journalists in the north of Ireland, the phone calls dropped, and immediately after this a recording of my phone calls with those journalists played back to me, which made me believe there was a malfunction of the recording of the phone calls by somebody. Is it good enough that the PSNI records any phone calls of journalists in the north of Ireland, and is it good enough that it potentially records phone calls by a Member of this Dáil? After 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement, is this not a threat to the functioning of democracy in the north of Ireland? Will the Taoiseach raise this and ask the incoming Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to investigate this practice by the PSNI?

I am conscious of commenting on the issue. I thank Deputy Tóibín for raising it but I have no knowledge of it. Obviously, these are very serious matters. If the Deputy wishes, I am happy to correspond with him on the matter and raise it with the relevant authorities.