Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The justice and crime section of the programme for Government states that the Government "will continue to support ... the enhanced role of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) in providing independent oversight of complaints made against members of the Garda Síochána". I do not know if the Taoiseach watched "Prime Time" last night, which covered an investigation into the killing of Shane O'Farrell in 2011, whose mother, father and sister are in the Gallery today and are calling for an open public inquiry. Six years and three months after GSOC took on this report, put that family through agony and dragged their guts along the ground - Lucia O'Farrell has been heroic in investigating this matter solo and raising all the issues concerned - it has come back with what is nothing short of a cover-up.

The commitment in the programme for Government is not good enough unless the Government now institutes an open public inquiry into what happened to Shane O'Farrell in 2011, why his killer was allowed to stay free having breached bail conditions 18 times and no Garda thought of picking him up and putting him behind bars.

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