A local deputy has called on the Justice Minster to allow for a public inquiry to be held into the death of Shane O'Farrell.
Sinn Fein TD Deputy Matt Carthy along with Deputy Brid Smith raised the issue in the Dail earlier today where members of Shane's family attended.
The Carrickmacross 23 year old man was killed in a hit-and-run on the 2nd of August 2011. Since Shane's death, his family have sought to get the truth of why the man who killed their son was in a position to do so when he should have been in prison.
In 2018, the Dáil supported a motion for the establishment of a public inquiry and since then a scoping exercise has been carried out. Deputy Carthy said a crucial question that has not been answered is why was this man in a position to crash into a young Carrickmacross lad, kill him and leave the scene, when he clearly should have been in prison.
"The Minister will know that many aspects of the scoping report have been challenged by Shane O'Farrell's family. It is not acceptable that our Government has refused to provide time for a full debate on its contents. This is something I will continue to seek".
"Zigimantas Gridziuska is solely responsible for the death of Shane O'Farrell, nobody else, and certainly not Shane himself. A crucial question that has not been answered is why this man was in a position to crash into a young Carrickmacross lad, kill him and leave the scene, when he clearly should have been in prison in light of multiple breaches of multiple bail conditions set by multiple courts".
"Every single person who understands these matters to whom to I have spoken privately, including many members of An Garda Síochána, have arrived at the same theory. They believe that Mr. Gridziuska must have been a Garda informer".
"The O'Farrell family has established that there is a file on Mr. Gridziuska in the Garda national crime, security and intelligence service, but they do not know what is on that file. They deserve to know. The only way they will find out is if the Minister finally accedes to implementing the decision of the House to establish an independent public inquiry into this case".
Meanwhile reacting to Deputy Carthy, Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee said that the scoping exercise carried out into Shane's death found that no further inquiries were required.
"On 3 July my Department published the report that was carried out by Judge Gerard Haughton arising from the scoping exercise into the circumstances surrounding the tragic and untimely death of Shane O'Farrell in, as was mentioned, August 2011. Judge Haughton was appointed by the former Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, in 2019 to carry out the scoping exercise. This was in light of a huge amount of controversy, hurt and upset surrounding the circumstances of Shane's tragic death".
"Specifically, the purpose of the exercise was to advise the Minister as to whether any further investigation or inquiry beyond those that had been carried out was necessary and, if so, to advise and inform of such investigation or inquiry or its terms of reference. I want to reassure the Deputies that there was no attempt to delay anything or to prevent any further inquiry. It is very much open to Judge Haughton to outline if a further inquiry is needed and what the scope and tenure of that would be".
"I want to thank Judge Haughton who conducted the scoping exercise and everyone, including the family, who co-operated with this process. His work has resulted in what I believe is a very thorough and comprehensive report. It is 416 pages long and every effort was made to make sure it was a fair and true representation of the situation, the facts at hand and whether more investigation was needed".
"He submitted his final report to me on 1 June 2022. In receipt of that, I then sought the Attorney General's advice on the issue of publication. Following that, the then Taoiseach, now Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, and I met with members of the O’Farrell family regarding the report in terms of both the content and publication. More recently, the Minister, Deputy Harris, met with members of the family in April".
"In his report, Judge Haughton concluded there are no circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Farrell that warrant further investigation or inquiry beyond what has already been carried out. He is very clear on that. Beyond those that have been carried out, there is no further warrant of investigation".
