Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann,

—bearing in mind the specific matters considered by the Government to be of significant public concern arising from the making of a confession by Dean Lyons (deceased) about the deaths of Mary Callinan and Sylvia Shiels in March 1997 in Grangegorman, Dublin 7;

—noting that it is the opinion of the Government that a commission of investigation represents the best method of addressing the issues involved;

—further noting that a draft order proposed to be made by the Government under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 (No. 23 of 2004) has been duly laid before Dáil Éireann in respect of the foregoing matters referred to, together with a statement of reasons for establishing a commission under that Act;

approves the draft Commission of Investigation (Dean Lyons Case) Order 2005.

It is essential to refer to the tragic human circumstances that give rise to the motion before the House. Most, if not all, Deputies will be aware that two innocent women, namely, Ms Sylvia Shiels, aged 59 at the time in question, and Ms Mary Callinan, aged 61 at the time in question, were brutally murdered in their home on the nights of 6 and 7 March 1997 at Orchard View in the Grangegorman area of Dublin. By any standards, it was a particularly heinous crime which shocked the nation and set in train a Garda man-hunt with a view to bringing the perpetrator to justice.

The aftermath of those tragic events gave rise to further tragic events. An innocent man, Dean Lyons, who is now deceased, confessed to the crime. Following consultation between the Garda and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, he was charged with one of the murders. The Garda Síochána now accepts that he had no participation in the murders and that his confessions were false. On 29 April 1998, the Director of Public Prosecutions, having received a further report from the Garda Síochána, directed that the charges against him be withdrawn.

There is no doubt that those events have had a profound effect on the everyday lives of the families of the women victims and on the family of the late Dean Lyons. We are all at one, I am sure, in expressing our deepest sympathy to those two families on foot of the suffering caused to them. The procedural formality of what I am about to say in no way takes away from those overriding sentiments.

Under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004, a commission of investigation may be established by the Government, based on a proposal by a Minister, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, to investigate any matter considered by the Government to be of "significant public concern". An issue giving rise to significant public concern is one that is of more than mere interest to the public or more than just the subject of vigorous political debate. It must, instead, be an issue which has profound implications for public life. Self-evidently, my Government colleagues and I are satisfied that certain aspects of the Dean Lyons case come within that category in that they have profound implications for the operation of our criminal justice system.

There are questions arising regarding Dean Lyons's false admissions and regarding the investigating team's conclusion that there was a prima facie case against him. In making these points, I am simply identifying them as matters that need to be addressed, not as matters on which I, as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, have already reached a definitive conclusion. I am convinced, however, that unless we do our utmost to get to the bottom of this controversy, it will simply continue to fester as an indictment of our criminal justice system. For these reasons the Government is of the view that the establishment of a commission of investigation is required. The motion before the House is a necessary prerequisite to the establishment of that commission. It seeks to have a draft of the order providing for the establishment of a commission of investigation into the Dean Lyons case approved by this House.

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