Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the O'Farrell family to the Gallery. This issue is certainly very relevant not only to the particular case at hand, but to many other cases around the country which have involved similar situations. We are all aware of them. We are all aware of the role that GSOC has played in many cases in which people have made legitimate complaints about Garda inaction or inappropriate action. While the Minister's defence of GSOC has been very valiant on this occasion, to call it to account in no way suggests that we do not need a body in place to hold the Garda to account. Somehow or other we seem to be in a situation in which we find that all of these cases are in the same place. The system circles the wagons. In many cases which GSOC is called to investigate, the investigations are carried out by people who are seconded to GSOC by An Garda Síochána. The Courts Service, the DPP and all of these people exist in a world into which the public cannot look. They are in a very cosy little relationship and continue to support one another. That is certainly the view the general public has in regard to this case and many others.

That Shane O'Farrell lost his life at the hands of someone who very clearly should not have been at large strikes a chord with many people around the country who find themselves in very similar situations. In fact, I would suggest that there needs to be an inquiry into the relationship between people in the criminal fraternity and certain gardaí and into how they act and how they co-operate. Supposedly it is for the greater good but very often it causes great harm to the public and to people who happen to become collateral damage in that relationship. This is one of the most serious examples of that collateral damage.

The GSOC report has clearly been a failure. We can decide how and why that is the case, whether it is absence of resources, an absence of appropriate legislation to support GSOC or whatever, but the truth is that this report has been a failure. It took six years to produce a report which stands for nothing. That is the reality. The Minister needs to come to realise that. What we are very clearly suggesting here, and what has been suggested, is that we need to have a public inquiry. It should be out in the open so that everyone, the public at large, can see that the right thing is being done by this young man who lost his life so tragically and by so many others around the country who are losing confidence not just in An Garda Síochána, but in the system the Minister stands over. That system is in the dock. This is an opportunity to do something clear about that and to show the public that this Government is going to take responsibility for this issue. It needs to do that immediately. A clear public inquiry is required immediately.

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