Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. On 21 February 1988, Aidan McAnespie was fatally wounded by gunfire near a British army checkpoint at Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, on the Border with County Monaghan. The shooting gave rise to a great degree of public disquiet at the time. Consequently, at the request of the Government, Garda Commissioner E.J. Doherty appointed Deputy Commissioner Eugene Crowley to institute an immediate inquiry into the fatal shooting and the circumstances surrounding the fatality. The Deputy Commissioner's subsequent report was submitted to the Minister for Justice on 8 April 1989.

The Deputy Commissioner's inquiry was conducted on the basis that the wishes of the witnesses to have their statements and identities treated as confidential would be respected and that the report would not be made available to any party other than the Government. However, an associated post mortem report by the State pathologist was made available to Mr. McAnespie's family. In the years since 1988, members of Mr. McAnespie's family have met officials of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as relevant Ministers and the Taoiseach. Understandably, the McAnespie family has on these occasions requested the release of Deputy Commissioner Crowley's report. Undertakings were given to examine the possibility of publishing the main findings of the report without disclosing the identity of any person who gave evidence or the contents of any statement.

Arising from the Good Friday Agreement, the Government established a victims commission under the authority of the former Tánaiste, Mr. John Wilson. Mr. Wilson's resultant report, A Place and a Name, was published in 1999. In paragraph 4.5.5, it recommended that the Crowley report on the shooting of Aidan McAnespie be published, while accepting that in order to protect innocent parties or sources some degree of editing might be required before publication. The Government subsequently decided, in April 2002, to agree to the release by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the McAnespie family of a summary of the Crowley report into the fatal shooting of Aidan McAnespie. As part of this decision, the Government approved the text of the summary to be released. The approved summary was released to Mr. McAnespie's family in August 2002.

The Minister is aware of the recent report of the historical inquiries team in Northern Ireland, which concluded that the official explanation given at the time, namely, that the weapon in question had been discharged accidentally and randomly, was the least likely of the possible explanations. The report concluded that it was more likely that the soldier in question had deliberately discharged a burst of aimed shots at the victim or in his vicinity, or that he was tracking Mr. McAnespie with the gun and being unaware that the gun was cocked and ready to fire, pulled the trigger, inadvertently discharging the shots.

The McAnespie family will be aware from the summary of the report that was released to them that Deputy Commissioner Crowley was unable to establish whether the shooting was deliberate. The historical inquiries team investigation has therefore already been able to draw a more detailed conclusion. This is no surprise given that its investigation had access to various sources of information within Northern Ireland that would not have been available to the Garda Síochána.

In regard to the inquiry carried out in this jurisdiction, the situation remains that it would not be proper to renege on the assurances of confidentiality given to witnesses. To do so would call into question the value of any assurances of confidentiality that may be given in the future. Calls have also been made to release the report in such a way that witnesses would remain anonymous. However, I am advised that the degree of editing that would be necessary to anonymise the report would be such as to be impracticable, particularly as this process would require much more than the mere omission of names, so as to avoid the ready identification of witnesses who live in the small locality where the shooting occurred. Thus, this approach was discounted and a decision taken instead to release a summary of the report's conclusions.

The Minister regrets it is not possible to accede to the Deputy's request. He has asked me to extend his sympathy to the McAnespie family and his hopes that the historical inquiries team report has helped bring them towards closure in regard to Aidan McAnespie's tragic death.

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