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

I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill. It has the potential to be important legislation. I note that among the stated objectives of the Bill is "to provide for clear and effective oversight and accountability of An Garda Síochána". It also includes provisions to restructure GSOC. In all these matters we have to be informed by the experiences to date, including the experiences of our constituents and our communities, and recognise and accept where deficiencies have clearly been identified.

With the Minister here, I will refer again to one case that has formed my views as to where improvements to the transparency and accountability of policing and judicial decisions should be made, that is, the case of Shane O'Farrell. So many questions have arisen from that case that it should be very much formative in addressing how we create a policing service that is not only fit for purpose but also accountable to those whom it must serve. As I mentioned to the Minister last week, Shane was 23 years of age 12 years ago, when he was killed by a man who should have been imprisoned. That man, a short time before Shane was killed, was stopped by gardaí while he was in a car. He was actually moved from the passenger seat to the driver seat by the gardaí who stopped him. He was in a car without tax, insurance or NCT. The car was clearly not roadworthy. The man was in breach of several bail conditions. We can go back months and months previous to that point and we see failure after failure that have led to serious questions as to how somebody in that position could be at large.

Subsequent to Shane's killing, we have found revelations as to how the perpetrator in this instance was treated for a long time. All those revelations, however, were found by Shane's mother through her diligence. The State investigations and reviews of the case have been blocking tactics as opposed to facilitators of truth and justice for the family.

I wish to refer in particular to the GSOC investigation because what it meant for the O'Farrell family was simply a number of years of delay because it did not provide any answers. In fact, Shane's family are still looking for the GSOC section 101 public interest report, which was prepared by GSOC in 2018. It was produced on foot of a request by the then Minister for Justice in 2014 to carry out a public interest investigation. GSOC produced its report after four years, but the family, even to this date, have received a summary version only. They have not received the complete report. This is called a public interest investigation, yet the people among the public who have the most interest in it still have not received it. There is also the section 97 GSOC report into minor discipline, which was provided to the Garda Commissioner on 29 January. That has also been refused to the O'Farrell family.

GSOC claims to be independent. The question the O'Farrell family and many others have raised is, if this is the body that is to provide oversight and accountability of the actions of the Garda, how it is that so many families come out of the process feeling they have suffered a second injustice.

Furthermore, this Dáil, as I have previously mentioned to the Minister, alongside the Seanad, voted in favour of the establishment of an independent public inquiry into the circumstances and the issues I have raised. Instead, a scoping exercise was conducted by the former judge, Gerard Haughton. We know that that report has now been compiled. Again, however, the number of questions that have arisen as a result of the diligent work Lucia O'Farrell has done in memory of her son Shane, in pursuit of justice for him, and in pursuit of the truth that will and should assist us all in deliberating Bills such as this one, must be and can only be answered through an independent inquiry.

I again urge the Minister to pursue that line. If we are to give clear and effective oversight and accountability of An Garda Síochána, and if we want that to happen in order for the Garda to continue to be held in the esteem in which it is held in communities across this State, we will need to learn from previous mistakes.

I will leave it at that, but I will keep raising this issue, as will others, until we get to a point where the demands and requests of the O'Farrell family are heeded.

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