Very serious allegations have been made against a Member of the Oireachtas, including that he or she is being used as an intelligence asset by the Russian Government. That any Oireachtas Member elected to represent the interests of the Irish people would allow himself or herself to be manipulated to work in the interests of a foreign government is scandalous. It is actually treacherous. Ireland is a member of the EU. We have a common travel area with Britain. We are the location for a high concentration of tech companies. We have underwater transatlantic cables off the coast above which two Russian ships parked recently. In 2021, we were hit by a cyberattack that cost €100 million, which could top out at €650 million. We have Defence Forces that are weakening in numbers by the year. When the Seanad discussed this issue yesterday, Members of the Seanad sniggered like giddy children. It looked like an episode of "Killinaskully", to be honest. Is this a laughing matter in reality? The Tánaiste is the Minister for Defence. He receives national security briefings. He knows who the individual is. What will he do to ensure that this person is held to account?

I do not know who the individual is.

You get national security briefings.

Yes. Let me finish. I will make an important point and statement. When I was Taoiseach on the dates concerning the allegations against this individual, I received security briefings but I was never told and never briefed that there was a spy in the Oireachtas, which to all intents and purposes is what the article in The Sunday Times asserted. I am very surprised at the degree to which everybody, herdlike, has grabbed onto the story and said, "This is it; who is the person?". I am absolutely amazed. There is a more fundamental question to be asked, which I will ask as Minister for Defence. As Minister for Defence, I have never received a security briefing stating there is a spy in the Oireachtas. There may be or there may not be, but I have never been briefed. There is an issue of accountability for our intelligence services because if this is true, then someone gave that information out. I do not think that is acceptable.

There is a broader issue. Future governments and the Oireachtas at large need to be very clear-eyed about the need, in a democracy, for intelligence services to have an accountability chain and be accountable. I argue, and a national security strategy is being developed, we lack that at the moment. I am not comfortable with the situation pertaining to intelligence. It is very important that we have intelligence in respect of the external dimension. Our Defence Forces do a very good and necessary job for the protection of our country. I have real concerns about how all of this has emerged into the public arena. I am somewhat surprised that politically it has all been in one direction and not in the other.