Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman for allowing me in, although I would have preferred if my question, which is almost identical to that of Deputy Bríd Smith, was grouped with it, as that would have allowed for more interaction. The Minister said her Department is not opposed to a public inquiry or other types of inquiries. I do not buy that. The reason there has been a scoping exercise is the Department and the Minister at the time, rather than adhering to the wishes of both Houses of the Oireachtas and establishing a public inquiry, put in place the scoping exercise, which has taken three years to complete. That is in addition to the six years the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, inquiry took to complete. Of the ten and a half years that Shane O'Farrell has been dead, it has been impossible for nine of them to ask a question of a Minister for Justice because, we were told, another investigation was ongoing.

Shane's family has demanded a public inquiry, as have the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Minister said the section 42 provisions may not be adequate but she also seems to be saying that she has done no examination as to what a public inquiry might look like in this case. Are we looking at a further delay following the publication of the scoping exercise, which I would argue should be released into the record of the Dáil to give it privilege, regardless of what the Attorney General should say? Is the Minister suggesting there may be a further lengthy delay before we get the public inquiry that is so rightly deserved in this case?

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