Has Ireland got a secret service?

Sunnyisland · 07-01-2012 11:39pm #1

I was watching a program on Tv the other night on some satellite channel about the secret services of countries, CIA,MI5,MOSSAD etc etc and got to wonder if we here in Ireland have one, I know we have an Army G2 and the Garda C3 intelligent branches but as where a neutral country overshadowed by a larger neighbour do we have secret service ?

And I know thats why its called a secret service :P

galwayrush · 07-01-2012 11:40pm

If i tell you, i'll have to kill you blast you with piss AH style

Sykk · 07-01-2012 11:40pm

Lol

Biggins · 07-01-2012 11:40pm

Yes - sort of.
More of an intelligence unit at times.

kfallon · 07-01-2012 11:40pm

There's a frw secret 'services' around Dublin

They'll even throw in a very secret and sneaky finger :P

Uriel. · 07-01-2012 11:41pm

realies wrote: »

I was watching a program on Tv the other night on some satellite channel about the secret services of countries, CIA,MI5,MOSSAD etc etc and got to wonder if we here in Ireland have one, I know we have an Army G2 and the Garda C3 intelligent branches but as where a neutral country overshadowed by a larger neighbour do we have secret service ?

And I know thats why its called a secret service :P

Yes we do... Now shhhh. Leave it at that and no more questions

galwayrush · 07-01-2012 11:42pm

Biggins wrote: »

Yes - sort of.
More of an intelligence unit at times.

And you ain't admitting any more....:D

senorwipesalot · 07-01-2012 11:42pm

The F.C.A

The Jammy dodger · 07-01-2012 11:42pm

Yeah our government is the secret service. But they are not very good at keeping secrets.

Biggins · 07-01-2012 11:42pm

galwayrush wrote: »

And you ain't admitting any more....:D

I know nothing more. :cool: :P

Rhyme · 07-01-2012 11:43pm

We have a mafia. Is that good enough?

Superbus · 07-01-2012 11:43pm

The IMF. Though they don't seem to be very secretive these days.

galwayrush · 07-01-2012 11:45pm

Biggins wrote: »

I know nothing more. :cool: :P

Ze geese fly high over ze frozen pond while ze sun shines...

mathepac · 07-01-2012 11:45pm

FFS we don't even have a decent public service - Seamus O'Bond agus Ms. Leath-phingin, yeah right. Christmas is coming again - bah humbug. Secret Service mo thoin, mutter, mutter, rhubarb, rhubarb

DEFTLEFTHAND · 07-01-2012 11:45pm

Biggins wrote: »

I know nothing more. :cool: :P

You sure about that Mr Biggins?:D

Biggins · 07-01-2012 11:48pm

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

You sure about that Mr Biggins?:D

Absolutely.

I was never here!

holystungun9 · 07-01-2012 11:50pm

Yeah, certified by FAS.

G_R · 07-01-2012 11:56pm

I remember looking this up before, I went through a phase of loving all things spy like.
I remember I found a dail transcript where a member of the opposition was questioning the minister for finance. He asked what the unvouched, unaudited funds given to an agency called the Irish Secret Service wad used for. The reply he got was something along the lines of 'well if I told you, it wouldn't be very secret'.

I would try and find that again, but I'm on ky phone. It didn't take long to find I don't think if anyone fancies googling it.

cml387 · 07-01-2012 11:59pm

I read in the paper today that the Stasi files,if placed end to end would reach from Dublin to Newry.

They are available for inspection by anyone in the former East Germany but apparently there are very few inquiries.

It struck me that I would have no interest in looking at my file,should such a thing exist in Ireland.
It would be a bit disillusioning to discover what a banal life you leave, and also how people you might trust had betrayed you.

Micky Dolenz · 08-01-2012 12:02am

Yes we have. It's listed in government expenditure on annual reports.

El Weirdo · 08-01-2012 12:02am

Grand_Rajnah wrote: »

I remember looking this up before, I went through a phase of loving all things spy like.
I remember I found a dail transcript where a member of the opposition was questioning the minister for finance. He asked what the unvouched, unaudited funds given to an agency called the Irish Secret Service wad used for. The reply he got was something along the lines of 'well if I told you, it wouldn't be very secret'.

I would try and find that again, but I'm on ky phone. It didn't take long to find I don't think if anyone fancies googling it.

WHILE YESTERDAY’S BUDGET was forced to wield the axe in a multitude of places – as Brendan Howlin sliced €2.2 billion from public spending – one small little-known agency was left with its budget untouched.
The Irish Secret Service – which previously came under the funding umbrella of the Minister for Finance, but which now lives under the remit of Howlin’s own Department of Public Expenditure – has retained its full budgetary funding for next year.
The agency will retain its €1m annual budget – despite having spent less than half of this, at €450,000, in 2011.
Indeed, the agency has fared particularly well over the last few years despite the successive austerity Budgets – its budget was increased from €900,000 to €1m in 2009, despite spending cuts of some €1.2 billion in that year.
Its budget was also maintained in last year’s Budget – despite an unprecedented €6 billion adjustment in the public finances last year.
Little is known about Ireland’s Secret Service or its activities, though officials have previously indicated that it does not actually exist: it is actually a budget category for joint operations between the Gardaí and military intelligence.
The service’s funding is paid into a bank account controlled by the Department of Public Expenditure, with funding then released whenever the ministers for Defence and Justice (currently both Alan Shatter) ask for it to be drawn down.
As one official told a Public Accounts Committee meeting in 2008, “imagine that the money is used to pay for information in the interests of the service of the State, rather than the supply of bullet-proof cars.”
In that light, it is perhaps more notable that the service’s spending actually fell in 2011, despite the visits of Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth: it spent €702,000 in 2010, but only €450,000 this year.
Sadly, we can’t tell you anything more that that. Well, we could, but we’d have to kill you.

http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/we-could-tell-you-about-the-secret-service-budget-but-then-wed-have-to-kill-you-297609-Dec2011/

G_R · 08-01-2012 12:05am

El Weirdo wrote: »

Grand_Rajnah wrote: »

I remember looking this up before, I went through a phase of loving all things spy like.
I remember I found a dail transcript where a member of the opposition was questioning the minister for finance. He asked what the unvouched, unaudited funds given to an agency called the Irish Secret Service wad used for. The reply he got was something along the lines of 'well if I told you, it wouldn't be very secret'.

I would try and find that again, but I'm on ky phone. It didn't take long to find I don't think if anyone fancies googling it.

WHILE YESTERDAY’S BUDGET was forced to wield the axe in a multitude of places – as Brendan Howlin sliced €2.2 billion from public spending – one small little-known agency was left with its budget untouched.
The Irish Secret Service – which previously came under the funding umbrella of the Minister for Finance, but which now lives under the remit of Howlin’s own Department of Public Expenditure – has retained its full budgetary funding for next year.
The agency will retain its €1m annual budget – despite having spent less than half of this, at €450,000, in 2011.
Indeed, the agency has fared particularly well over the last few years despite the successive austerity Budgets – its budget was increased from €900,000 to €1m in 2009, despite spending cuts of some €1.2 billion in that year.
Its budget was also maintained in last year’s Budget – despite an unprecedented €6 billion adjustment in the public finances last year.
Little is known about Ireland’s Secret Service or its activities, though officials have previously indicated that it does not actually exist: it is actually a budget category for joint operations between the Gardaí and military intelligence.
The service’s funding is paid into a bank account controlled by the Department of Public Expenditure, with funding then released whenever the ministers for Defence and Justice (currently both Alan Shatter) ask for it to be drawn down.
As one official told a Public Accounts Committee meeting in 2008, “imagine that the money is used to pay for information in the interests of the service of the State, rather than the supply of bullet-proof cars.”
In that light, it is perhaps more notable that the service’s spending actually fell in 2011, despite the visits of Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth: it spent €702,000 in 2010, but only €450,000 this year.
Sadly, we can’t tell you anything more that that. Well, we could, but we’d have to kill you.

http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/we-could-tell-you-about-the-secret-service-budget-but-then-wed-have-to-kill-you-297609-Dec2011/

Not the one I was thinking of but equally lacking in concrete information. :pac:

Thanks, btw

razorblunt · 08-01-2012 12:09am

No chance Bertie would have told everyone in his local by now, unless its like the United Irishmen - or one of those early independence groups, so secret people were publicly sworn in.

WoollyRedHat · 08-01-2012 12:12am

Biggins wrote: »

Yes - sort of.
More of an intelligence unit at times.

Hey Biggins, how's the flower selling business coming along?

Biggins · 08-01-2012 12:18am

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Hey Biggins, how's the flower selling business coming along?

Blooming!

Ghandee · 08-01-2012 12:22am

Did anyone ever find out who was in the 'golden circle'?
Nope....

Secret service!

Thatnastyboy · 08-01-2012 12:29am

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Hey Biggins, how's the flower selling business coming along?

Biggins wrote: »

Blooming!

Flowers By Irene?

ejmaztec · 08-01-2012 12:34am

It's called Mossie.

Doc Ruby · 08-01-2012 12:35am

Couldn't be more than a half dozen people with a budget like that.

Richard Hillman · 08-01-2012 12:35am

They do a great job considering every large IRA bomb attempt fails in the north. I'd imagine there is an agreement with the british government to operate in the north. Whoever the big wigs in the irish republican groups are, they are most likely from our undercover special forces. Either that or they really are the ****test terrorist group ever.