Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Custodial Sentences) Bill 2021 was published on 29 July and comprises 58 sections. The purpose of the Bill is to implement EU Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal matters imposing custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty for the purpose of their enforcement in the European Union.

While we are talking about criminal justice and law, I wish to raise the extensive mural at Kent Street in Clonakilty which was completed this year. It marks a number of historical events and includes a depiction of General Micheal Collins. The mural was defaced with silver spray paint. The face of the freedom fighter was completely covered by a crudely-drawn graffiti tag. This mural was funded by Cork County Council and created in the summer by artists and Mr. Darren Warren of the Waterford Walls projects. The vandalism was committed ahead of Monday's unveiling of the new west County Cork Michael Collins Trail. The people of Clonakilty are angry, and rightly so, as we are all very proud of the Michael Collins Trail, museum and mural. People who go out and damage property like this must be dealt with appropriately, either by the Prisons Service or, if it is due to an illness, they must receive the proper care and access to mental health services. I wish everyone involved with the new Michael Collins Trail the very best of luck and congratulate them on their hard work in getting the project up and running and honouring one of the finest freedom fighters of our time.

This Bill, as I said, is to implement an EU Council framework decision. I saw a recent judgment - I will not go into the detail of it because we are not allowed to here - which showed what I call leniency. Someone, basically from another country, came here and did some harm to a lady and got a very lenient sentence. I felt deportation was the fastest and best way because, listening to the outcome of the case, the same individual had carried out numerous crimes in his own country before he came here. What he did to that lady was shocking and appalling. I am not going to mention the case so we do not get ourselves in any trouble but there must be some way of dealing with these people. The strongest way possible would be to send them back so that they can be sentenced again in their own countries, close to their own families. Maybe they could spend some time coming up with their own solutions as to why they have to hurt people to vent their anger.

There are other issues as well which are dear to my own home. I wish to speak of the awful murder committed on 23 December 1996, of a foreign national who was only 39 years of age. A young and loving mother was brutally murdered. Dr. John Harbison, the then State pathologist, told an inquest into her death that she died of multiple injuries, including laceration of the brain and a fracture of the skull caused a blunt instrument, just a few miles from my home. This has left her whole family devastated and 25 years later they are still looking for justice. We must urge the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, to go back and look at the file, read it and ask why the case was not prosecuted over the years. This country, and our legal system, owes it to murder victim's family and also to the people of west County Cork, who have been left with this awful shadow cast over what we consider one of the safest places in the world. Over the past year, this case has gotten much publicity. However, we must not forget that behind the movies, books and interviews, the victim was only 39 years of age and was a mother who left a child behind. She did not die in a car accident. She did not die due to an illness. She was murdered by someone who thinks they have got away with it. The time will come when the person who committed this atrocious crime will be arrested and convicted. Then the victim will be able to rest in peace, and maybe her family will finally be able to get on with their lives. I ask the Department of Justice and the DPP to get involved and look again at this case for everyone's sake.

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