Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There was a profound policing vacuum in the North for many decades. This was not created by republicans. During the conflict, large sections of the community in the North did not access or trust the criminal justice system. In some cases, citizens were victims of state abuse or the police turned a blind eye to abuse. We cannot be selective in dealing with the failures to handle allegations of sexual abuse, and there is no hierarchy of victims. All should have been ensured the protection and support of the state in which they lived and this State.

Women prisoners were subjected as a matter of policy to the sexual assault of strip searching. The women subjected to this abuse deserve access to justice and to hold to account those responsible, those who conducted the assaults and those who sanctioned the policy.

Throughout the conflict in the North, the police and court service were subservient to the objective of combating republicanism. This cannot be discounted as republican propaganda. The state pursued as policy the primacy of gathering intelligence on republicans over that of tackling criminality. It has been the experience of many victims who went forward to the RUC that they were more interested in intelligence gathering than dealing with their complaints. We are also unaware of the number of abusers who were safeguarded from arrest or had charges dropped if they became an asset to the Special Branch or British Army intelligence. Indeed, victims, while they made complaints, were recruited and taken advantage of. This was the practice that was in place until the implementation of the Patten Commission. This was the force within a force that operated throughout the conflict. Successive Irish Governments were aware of this and that was why a new beginning to policing formed a key part of the Good Friday Agreement.

We cannot be prescriptive or selective as to who is entitled to due process and support. To ignore that reality is to ignore the abuse that went unreported or investigated by the state with the potential that abusers were safeguarded from arrest. All victims of abuse at a time of conflict deserve support and access to justice. This must include those who could not access the supports of the state, those whose allegations were failed by the RUC, and those who were let down or who were failed by the actions of republicans. Indeed, many living in the North of Ireland who endured all those years watch with great interest when Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil politicians have an interest from time to time in the affairs there, usually when there is some political advantage to be obtained. Any proposals to support and provide justice for abuse victims must address the legacy of state forces or be seen not to be selective and party-politically motivated.

I understand that there are approximately 300 serious cases on the desks of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice and Equality. Most, if not all, of these cases have been referred to the independent panel of counsel for their review and recommendations. Some of these cases are of persons or families alleging the cover-up of murder and a profound failure of the criminal justice system in this State. Despite requests from some of these families for meetings with the Taoiseach, no meetings have been facilitated. The Taoiseach has not commented on their cases. The Taoiseach has not labelled the accused as guilty without due process. The Taoiseach has not set aside any time in this Chamber for statements on these matters. I refer to 300 cases involving some of the most serious allegations one could imagine and there are no demands for debates from around the Chamber from those who have taken advantage of this today. The Taoiseach protests that he cannot comment on those cases as an independent review process is under way. Many of these families have contacted me and many others in recent weeks with the observation that the Taoiseach and others in government left aside all of this previous practice to avail of the opportunity to score political points. They are hurt and outraged about this. The Taoiseach and his Government colleagues stands accused of cynicism and political opportunism. I believe them to be guilty on both charges.

I wish to outline a few of these cases. The late Mr. Shane Tuohey was from Tullamore, County Offaly. He was 23 years old. On 2 February 2002, Shane attended a night club. He would never return home. His body was taken from the River Brosna in Clara on 9 February by his brother, Edwin, after a week long search. Shane's family believes that their son was the victim of a brutal assault that night that led to his death and that his body was subsequently dumped into the river. They have attained the services of two forensic pathologists based in the United States, both of whom put Shane's brain injury down to head trauma. One of the forensic pathologists, Dr. Kim Collins, states that in his opinion the manner of death of Mr. Tuohey is homicide, yet a Garda source was quoted after Shane's body was recovered as stating that foul play was not suspected. Worse still, a member of An Garda Síochána went on the local airwaves to state that the late Mr. Tuohey had gone missing on a number of previous occasions. His family have rejected this statement as entirely untrue. The Tuohey family believe that their son and brother was murdered and that some members of An Garda Síochána were involved in a cover-up. They are devastated by their experience and they have a harrowing story to tell.

Mr. Jim Goonan was found dead in his home in Birr, County Offaly, in March 2002. Jim's brother, Cyril, believes that he was murdered despite the advice given by An Garda Síochána to the DPP that his death was not suspicious. Cyril and his family have a serious story to tell.

On 2 August 2011, Mr. Shane O' Farrell, who was 23 year old, was killed by a hit-and-run driver at Carrickmacross, County Monaghan. A law graduate, Shane had handed in his dissertation for his master's degree at Trinity College earlier that day. Like the late Mr. Tuohey, he had a full life ahead of him. Words cannot describe the devastation Shane's death has caused to his parents and siblings. His mother told me when I met her that their family are destroyed. The driver of the car that killed Shane was a drug addict with 40 previous convictions and was at large because of two suspended sentences imposed on both sides of the Border. Shane's family believe that their son and brother was killed by this State because of the incredible litany of failings in the criminal justice system that culminated in his killing. Theirs is also a harrowing story.

Tomorrow, a delegation of families seeking justice for their deceased relatives will visit Stormont Castle to meet senior politicians from each of the political parties in the North, including the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and the Alliance Party. The families, who live in this State, including some of the families I have just discussed, have lost loved ones in violent circumstances - in two cases, their own children. They have also been unable to get a meeting with the Taoiseach. There is no comment from the Taoiseach or senior Government colleagues because an independent process is under way - that is their defence. There is five hours of debate here today with some statements read into the record even though there is an independent process under way in the North, and I wonder why.

The families will also be accompanied at the meeting tomorrow by the Garda whistleblower, Mr. John Wilson, and the journalist, Ms Gemma O'Doherty. This is the first phase in a new international awareness-raising campaign about cases of alleged Garda wrongdoing which will be taken to, among other institutions, the European Parliament and the United Nations next year. Will the Taoiseach finally meet these campaigners and these families, or is there not political opportunity in this for him?

As Sinn Féin spokesperson on justice and equality, on many occasions I have raised issues having met families from this side of the floor and, repeatedly, I have been met with obfuscation, denial, resistance and refusal to engage with those families. I gave some examples today. I could have read so many more but I do not have the time. In recent weeks those families were outside the Dáil protesting, looking for a hearing from the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice and Equality and looking for their families' experiences of the profound failure of the criminal justice system in this State to be discussed, and they cannot be heard.

People are not fooled by this debate today. Out there they know that what happened today was a cynical episode of political opportunism and point-scoring, mostly by those who could not give two damns about the people of the Six Counties and who spent their entire political careers denying the rights of people in the North, turning their back on them and kicking down anybody who would defend their rights. Nobody is fooled by this episode today. Shame on the Government which will not meet the 300 families in this State but did what it did today. Nobody is fooled. They should enjoy their journey.

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