They're secret all right
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Surely this must be the most perfect secret service in the world. It achieves things, it spends money, but try to catch it and you will grasp only thin air. You will end up chasing smokes and daggers.
At the Dail Public Accounts Committee yesterday, concerns were expressed that the Irish Secret Service had spent only about half of the money it was allocated in 2006.
If other areas of the public services could exercise such budgetary restraint, even cutting staff levels to a nice, efficient round sum of zero, the country might be better off.
Its budget for 2006 had been doubled amid fears of an attack on Ireland similar to the London suicide bombings or the Madrid bombings.
At the time, a Finance spokesman said the secret service was not expected to spend its entire allowance unless "something came up".
Thankfully nothing came up.
The secret service is, in fact, a budgetary device under the auspices of the Department of Finance that allows resources to be allocated for security operations which may, or may not, be considered necessary by top gardai and military intelligence who meet regularly.
At least that's what they tell us.
