Dáil debates

Tuesday, 12 June 2018

Death of Shane O'Farrell: Motion [Private Members]

 

8:55 pm

Photo of Niamh SmythNiamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Lucia, Jim and their beautiful daughters tonight to the Gallery to hear us speak about a very tragic case. Almost seven years have passed since Shane O'Farrell was killed in an horrific hit-and-run incident in Carrickmacross in County Monaghan. Shane was a bright, young, intelligent man, an only son with four loving sisters and his whole life ahead of him. He was killed in a hit-and-run by a man with 42 previous convictions. When Shane was killed, the accused was on bail arising from a number of offences and had breached the conditions of those bail bonds. He was serving suspended sentences which would have been activated had the courts been informed of his convictions. In short, had the criminal justice system been functioning properly, the accused would not have been at liberty on that day to kill Shane.

The O'Farrell family has worked tirelessly seeking justice for their only son and brother. The State has failed them in the manner in which Shane's death was investigated and prosecuted, and it is continuing to fail them in the manner in which their complaints around the investigation and the prosecution are being handled by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC. Shane's death is a personal tragedy for the O'Farrell family as a light has been shone on a dysfunction in many elements of our criminal justice system. There is a systematic problem in the way in which the State deals with breaches of bail conditions and conditions attached to suspended sentences. Furthermore, the courts are overly reliant on information being provided by An Garda Síochána. It is clear the GSOC inquiry has been a total failure. We are six years into the process and the O'Farrells have no more answers than when they started the process. The only conclusion to be gleaned from the report is that the Government must step in and establish a commission of investigation so we, as a nation, can learn from this awful tragedy.

The O'Farrell family must be commended on the courageous and dignified manner in which they have pursued justice for their son and brother. They have been unrelenting in the quest for justice and in doing so they honour Shane's life. If our justice system had been operating effectively, the accused would not have been driving on that awful day in August 2011 but he would have been in jail. The accused had been released on bail on numerous occasions arising from offences and despite breaching bail bonds he had not been brought before the court for those breaches. Three weeks before the O'Farrell death, the accused was convicted of a theft in Newry and this should have led to his imprisonment in the Republic for breach of bail conditions. The car in which the accused was travelling was pulled over by the Garda not an hour before Shane was killed. The vehicle he was travelling in was being driven by an uninsured driver and the vehicle did not even have a valid national car test, NCT, certificate. The car should have been seized. The driver was well known to An Garda Síochána, Interpol and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, and he had an extensive criminal record. As I stated, he had over 40 previous convictions for a variety of offences.

I must finish because I am sharing time with colleagues but this case reveals a shocking dysfunction in the criminal justice system. Anybody who has met Lucia, Jim and Shane's sisters knows that Lucia knows the case inside out and has forensic knowledge of how it was dealt with in an unsatisfactory way for the family and Shane. I ask that a commission of investigation be established by the Government.

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