Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

Can murderers, specifically wife murderers, continue on the State payroll after conviction? Is there any regulation to stop someone receiving State funds years after killing someone, particularly the mother of their child? A number of attempts have been made to find out if James Kilroy, who murdered Valerie French, is still being paid by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS. My information is that he is. A journalist asked the NPWS and was told it was the subject of legal correspondence. Three freedom of information requests by somebody else have failed to elicit a clear answer. The first response said they could not answer a personal question. The second said that they could not clarify the procedure and it was being dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The third request also failed to elicit an answer. I ask the Taoiseach straight, why would the NPWS not point to the regulation where someone is no longer turning up to work and on the payroll? The information is that James Kilroy can not only keep his children but also that he can keep getting paid by the taxpayer years after killing his wife. Nothing seems to have been done about this. Why is this happening?

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