John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Lucia O'Farrell, as well as Jim and the rest of the family, to the Gallery. I compliment them on the investigation they have undertaken of the death of their son and brother, Shane. It is an appalling indictment of the State that from the time of his death in 2011, they have had to fight the might of the State in dealing with this case. We are not asking for an investigation into the death of Shane O'Farrell just for the sake of his family or as an acknowledgement of what happened to Shane; it goes way beyond that. The Minister is responsible for justice matters and if he read any of the information sent out by Lucia or looked at the dates of court orders and peace bonds, he must be concerned about the state of the justice system. It is not about the date on which he died but rather what happened before.

The man in question was extremely well known to the Garda in that area. From 2008 he had clocked up appearances in court related to drugs such as heroin, traffic offences and fraud. He got six months for one conviction at Carrickmacross District Court but he did not serve a day of it. That was between 2008 and 2010. In 2010 he started again with offences related to theft, traffic, insurance fraud, not having a valid NCT certificate and so on. He appeared in Monaghan District Court at Carrickmacross, at Virginia in Cavan and so on. He was well known to gardaí in the area as an abuser of drugs and a criminal. That is a fact. The Minister knows the justice system better than most and he cannot have confidence in that system after reading all the detail that Lucia O'Farrell has put before us. In 2011 the man in question had five consecutive days of theft and the gardaí failed to send proof in this regard to a laboratory for testing.

From 2008, the Garda and the courts system have failed this family. Had they taken action, Shane O'Farrell would not have been killed on the road that night. Around 14 July 2011, the PSNI told the Garda about this man's antics across the Border. On the night in question, 2 August, as previous speakers noted, this man was waved on by gardaí despite insurance on the car being obtained by false or misleading information. When the man got bail at Dundalk, the superintendent did not object and we must ask why. After Shane's death, on 24 August 2011 the superintendent failed to inform the court about his death when the man was up before it for another criminal incident. In 2011 the man was jailed in Belfast but had not been missed from Carrickmacross, where he was supposed to have been signing on. He failed to sign on and was not even in the jurisdiction.

As a result of the manner in which this was investigated by the Garda and the complete failure of the justice system in this case, the country deserves an investigation that will thoroughly deal with all the matters that have been raised. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions must be questioned about the processes and procedures relevant to Shane's case. There can be no question or doubt after one reads the evidence presented by Lucia O'Farrell. The prosecution of the case must be dealt with. At the end of another case involving this man, he was given the option of going home to his son or serving time in prison. I do not know anybody before the courts who got such options. I was at the Court of Appeal today and Ms Yvonne Walsh did not get much of an option there as she was sent straight back to jail. Why has all this happened with the man involved with Shane O'Farrell's case?

The Government must take the lead on this, step in and provide the type of inquiry with extended terms of reference to ensure all these matters are covered. It is a litany of failure across the Garda Síochána, the courts system and the Prison Service. The Minister would not be acting properly and in the interests of the State if he did not recognise the matters we are putting before him this evening, stand up after we finish and grant the type of inquiry that will provide information to the public and deal with these issues. As a consequence, the Department might instigate the appropriate reforms to ensure this does not happen again. I appeal to the Minister not to read a script that has been handed to him. He should listen to the O'Farrell family and do the right thing.

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