Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I wish to indicate that at one point I was involved on behalf of Lucia O'Farrell in legal proceedings. I am no longer involved in those proceedings. I declare that before anybody makes some point about it.

The O'Farrell family knows that nothing that can be done now can bring Shane back. They also know that nothing can be done to reverse the outcome of the trial of Mr. Gridziuska; it cannot be reversed. However, faced with the circumstances that they were faced with, they had a simple choice: did they just crumple up and suffocate on their own grief or did they do something to protest about the circumstances that led to a man who should not have been driving a car on this occasion colliding with their son on an August evening when he was out on a spin on his bike and killing him? Were they simply to accept that, as so many people do in fatal accident cases, and say that this was irreversible, unpredictable, could not be foreseen, nothing could be done about it and there was nothing to be said except to grieve their loss?

In fairness, they decided to take the position that this man should not have been driving that car on that occasion. If he had not been driving that car on that occasion their son would not have been killed, regardless of what the facts were proven at the trial of Mr. Gridziuska. They asked themselves what led to their son being involved in an incident with a driver like Mr. Gridziuska that evening. The more they concentrated on the background facts, the more they became convinced. Everybody who has looked at all the facts shares their conviction that he should not have been driving that car on that occasion and would not have been driving that car on that occasion if the State had, through its organs, namely, An Garda Síochána and the court system, taken reasonable steps to impose upon that driver the common-sense requirements of criminal justice. They cannot put that out of their minds. They cannot say that this man was driving a car in circumstances where he was faultless, where the system should have allowed him to be there, where Shane cycling his bike on that August evening should have been mown down by him and left to die on the side of the road. They should not have been in the position of dealing with those circumstances. The reason they should not have been in that position is very simple. The Irish justice system utterly and completely failed them. The Irish justice system as a whole let this man out on the roads to interact with members of the Irish public, north and south of the Border, for years, with nobody taking any steps to impose on him the rule of law.

The Constitution refers to vindicating the right of people to their life and all the rest of it. The State must have a duty to vindicate people's rights not simply by prosecuting them when they are accused of infringing on other people's rights but by taking every reasonable step to ensure that people who are a danger to other people's rights are in fact prevented from infringing those rights. That is what the State has by way of constitutional obligation to protect people. There was no protection here whatsoever.

Everything is recorded on the Garda PULSE system in theory. There is a computer record of every incident. There is supposed to be some interaction between the court system and the PULSE system. However, the simple fact is that this man was the subject of suspended sentences. Nobody ever took any steps to enforce those sentences. Nobody ever brought him back before a judge and said, "Serve your sentence." No garda who knew he breached the terms of the suspended sentences that had been imposed on him ever held him to account. Nobody brought him before the bar of justice at any stage in circumstances that could have given rise to preventing what happened to Shane O'Farrell. Those are the facts.

Judge Haughton was a member of the District Court. He was part of the system. He saw case after case brought before him in whatever court he was in in Dublin. He probably never asked himself, "Does anybody seriously look at the suspended sentences I am imposing and follow up on them to see if somebody actually merits the activation of their sentence, except some hyperactive garda with some kind of agenda against the accused?" My experience of the criminal law in Ireland is that there has been virtually no attempt in the vast majority of suspended sentences ever to see whether somebody has or has not complied with their obligation to keep the peace, be of good behaviour and not to infringe the law. Practically nobody on a suspended sentence is brought back before a court except in the most egregious circumstances because the system does not provide for that.

It was for this reason that I encouraged Lucia O'Farrell and her family rather than to seek damages from the State for the death of Shane to look to the Executive and the Legislature and ask for an inquiry, one which would really go to the heart of how poor the enforcement of our legal system is when it comes to suspended sentences. Such an inquiry would go to the heart of why this man was at liberty to do all the things that he did. It would look across the Border and ask if there is co-operation between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána on offences committed that have an implication for cross-Border policing.

That is what I urged them to do. I urged them to seek an inquiry. They did not get an inquiry. I will not describe what was given as a whitewash; that would be unfair to Judge Haughton. I will not decry what he did, but this needed the helicopter view - a view looking down on everything that happened. It needed to ask why this sequence of events took place and if the Irish system robust and proper, a public inquiry which would for once deliver to An Garda Síochána and the courts a clear statement of their obligations to ensure that their suspended sentences actually mean something. The Irish system has failed the O'Farrell family.If Senator Gallagher tables a motion for a proper inquiry, I will be the first to support it.