Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have to say I do not buy that. GSOC carried out the investigations. GSOC concluded two reports. In respect of the section 101 report, the family have received summaries, not the full report. My understanding is that the same is the case for the section 97 report. These are reports in GSOC's possession. Whatever Judge Haughton is doing in relation to his scoping inquiry, he needs to be let do that but that does not prevent GSOC from providing those reports to the family. In fact, the Garda Commissioner is on the record as saying that these reports have been compiled by GSOC and that publication relates to Mr. Justice MacCabe's organisation alone. My question is, will GSOC provide those reports to the family considering they are the instigators? As Mr. Hume correctly said, they are the most important part of this procedure.

Following this case, I am aware of some of the details and most of the revelations about the fact that the person who killed Shane should have been imprisoned at the time, had been in breach of multiple bail conditions, and had received a custodial sentence that was never pursued and that he never served. While he was supposed to be signing on at a Garda station on a daily basis for a period of that time, he was in custody north of the Border. It is a litany of failures. The real answers and the causation of all of those failures have never been revealed. GSOC, the organisation that one would have hoped would have been part of finding those answers, instead was subjugated to a significant delay during which time every other actor in this process refused to answer questions. The then Minister for Justice and Equality, the then Department of Justice and Equality, the Garda, the DPP and the Courts Service - everybody who was responsible for failures in this case - stated for almost eight years that they could not answer questions because GSOC was carrying out an investigation. Now GSOC is coming in here and stating that it cannot provide information because there is a scoping inquiry taking place. My question is, when the scoping inquiry is concluded what will be the excuse for refusing to provide this family with answers as to why their son was killed by a man who should have been imprisoned at the time?