James Heffernan (Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I congratulate him and Oulart-The Ballagh on the terrific win at the weekend. It has been a long time coming for the club and well done to them. I would also spare a thought for Clough-Ballacolla. They threw it away against Oulart-The Ballagh a few weeks ago and it would have been great for Laois hurling if they had succeeded, but I wish the best of luck to the club continuing in the all-Ireland series.

The reason I have asked the Minister of State to come to the Seanad relates to the very tragic and quite frightening case of two missing persons. One is Anastasija Varslavane, a Latvian national, who lost her mother here in Ireland at the age of 17 and is left without anyone belonging to her. She has distant relatives and a grandmother in Latvia, but no one here in Ireland. At 21 years of age, Anastasija has disappeared, along with her partner, Willie Maughan. Willie is from a very well-respected family in the Killinarden estate. His father, Joe, is a very prominent member of the community there, who has given his heart, soul and life to the community in Killinarden through his involvement with the Sacred Heart soccer club. Willie, who was about the same age as myself, and his young, beautiful and three months pregnant girlfriend went missing in April of this year. They are missing, presumed dead. William and Anastasija are known to have fallen into company with a very dangerous and violent gangland figure who offered a large sum of money to William to carry out an assassination on behalf of the gang. William refused to comply and he and Anastasija are now missing and presumed dead. If this case happened anywhere else, there would be uproar. If it happened to an Irish citizen in a foreign country, we would all know about it. We saw in the cases of the murders of Karen Buckley in Glasgow and Jill Meagher in Australia how there was uproar among the relevant Irish diasporas and involvement by the Irish authorities, including An Garda Síochána. When it comes to taking on gangland persons in this State who have links with international crime and are involved in drugs, trafficking, theft of vehicles and murder, everything should be done to bring their activities to an end.

Will the Minister of State indicate whether it would be possible or appropriate to invite the Latvian authorities to come to Ireland and be briefed on the case by the gardaí in Ashbourne who are doing their absolute best to get justice for these two families? I ask that consideration be given to the issuing of such an invitation through the offices of the Department of Justice and Equality.