The Tánaiste made the comments in the Dáil in response to questions from Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who said “very serious allegations have been made against a member of the Oireachtas”.
Mr Tóibín asked the Tánaiste if the individual would be held to account and said that Mr Martin knew who the person was.
However, the Tánaiste rejected the assertion and said he wasn’t briefed on the matter, though he was Taoiseach at the time when the alleged spy engaged with Russian intelligence.
“First of all, I don’t know who the individual is,” the Tánaiste said.
“[When I was Taoiseach] 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 asserts,” he added.
The Tánaiste was critical of the response to the report of a Russian agent in the Oireachtas and questioned how the information made it into the public domain.
“I’m actually very surprised at the degree to which everybody just grabbed on the story and said, this is it. Who is the person?” he said.
He also said there was a question of accountability in relation to the intelligence service.
“As Minister of Defense, I’ve never received a security briefing saying there was a spy in the Oireachtas. There may be, there may not, but I’ve never been briefed.
“There’s an issue of accountability in terms of our intelligence services, because if this is true, then someone gave that information out and I don’t think that’s acceptable actually,” he said.
The Tanaiste said while the Defence Forces do a good job in relation to intelligence, he is not “comfortable with the situation pertaining to intelligence”.
“I think there’s a broader issue that future governments and the Oireachtas at large need to be very clear eyed about the need in a democracy that intelligence services have an accountability chain and are accountable.
“I would argue, and there is a national security strategy being developed, I would argue, we lack that at the moment. I’m not comfortable with the situation pertaining to intelligence.
“It’s very important that we have intelligence. It’s very important in terms of the external dimension, and our defence forces do a very good job, actually, and a very necessary job for the protection of the country.
“I have concerns about how all of this has he has emerged into the public arena, real concerns about it Deputy [Tóibín], and I’m somewhat surprised that politically, it’s all been in one direction, and not in the other,” the Tánaiste said.
The comments in the Dáil comes after several senators used their speaking time on Wednesday to declare they were not Russian spies.
This included Senator Timmy Dooley, Cathaoirleach of the Seanad Jerry Buttimer, Fine Gael’s Maria Byrne and Fianna Fáil’s Malcom Byrne.
