Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On 2 August 2011, a young, intelligent, vibrant life was taken by a man who should not have been in a position to do so. He should not have been where he was. The hard fact of the matter is that the driver of the car that mowed down Shane O'Farrell should have been in custody, in prison. Shane's life was taken and the lives of his distraught parents and family will be forever broken. The driver was a bail bond breaker and a serial offender on both sides of the Border. The absence of real joined-up policing North-South made it possible for this man to avoid the proper application of the law in both jurisdictions. Inexplicably, however, the absence of proper application of the law by members of An Garda Síochána, even where all the salient information was not to hand, merits comprehensive address. The recently published GSOC report fails the test.

This is not about scapegoating garda A or garda B. It is about exposing and addressing the systemic failures of our policing and justice systems. It is about putting in place real guidelines and real standards for policing, and not just in this State.

We also need reform of penal policy and sentencing. A significant number of prisoners in our prison system have been placed there for not paying fines, many, I expect, because they are unable to do so. Our prisons are occupied beyond capacity. I suspect there may be some impact from that fact in this case. A man who over the preceding 19 months, up to his taking Shane's life, had committed at least 25 offences, including possession of drugs, aggravated burglary, theft, the handling of stolen goods and a list of road traffic offences, was allowed to go free time after time, bail bond after bail bond. Something is not working. Something is not right.

We cannot have Shane back. We cannot really comfort his grief-stricken family in their immense loss but we can and we must ensure that the full truth is established and that the flaws of our policing and justice systems are identified and corrected. A full public inquiry will not end the O'Farrell family's heartache but it could and it should end the wrongs that contributed to Shane's tragic death. A full public inquiry is a societal requirement and one that should be initiated by the Government without any further delay.

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