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24
June 2005
Ministers
must clarify what they knew and when
Green
Party Justice spokesperson, Ciarán Cuffe TD has called on McDowell and
O’Donoghue to clarify when they received the Carty Report
The
Green Party has called on Ministers O’Donoghue and McDowell to clarify when
they received Assistant Garda Commissioner Kevin Carty’s report on criminal
activities of some Gardái in Donegal.
Ciaran
Cuffe TD, Green Party spokesperson for Justice, said today:
“Minister
McDowell has told the Dáil that neither he, as Attorney General, nor former
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, John O’Donoghue received the
Carty report when they should have.
“When
he was Minister for Justice John O’Donoghue told the House on several
occasions that he had received the Carty Report shortly after it had been
completed. On 5 October 2000 O’Donoghue told the House he had ‘received a
report of the investigation by Assistant Commissioner, Kevin Carty, from the
Garda Commissioner’. Later that day Deputy Howlin asked Minister O’Donoghue
‘on what date did the Minister first receive the Carty report?’ The then
Minister’s reply was ‘I have no intention of misleading the House and I will
try to ascertain the correct dates and communicate them to Deputy Howlin’.
“Minister
McDowell claimed in the Dáil on Friday 17th June that he only received the
appendices of the Carty report in early 2002, but he has so far refused to say
when he received the rest of the damning Carty report or the synopsis of the
Carty Report sent to the Department of Justice by Acting Garda Commissioner Noel
Conroy on August 4th 2000.
“Who
knew what and when goes right to the heart of our trust in these Ministers.
Between August 2000 when Carty reported and May 2002 when the Morris Tribunal
was established both Minister O’Donoghue and Minister McDowell knew there was
a very serious series of conspiracies to pervert the course of justice and they
failed to take appropriate action. I am today tabling several Parliamentary
Questions to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to ascertain the
truth of this matter.”
Even
if Minister O’Donoghue only had the then Acting Garda Commissioner Conroy’s
4th August 2000 Synopsis of the Carty Report he should have taken
more decisive action. Instead he delayed for nine months before asking the
Attorney General’s advice as to how to determine the facts.
Conroy’s Synopsis clearly showed that there was something rotten in
Donegal.
Note: Attached below are the 11 Questions put to Minister McDowell
1. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
was the Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s report on allegations that
members of the Garda Siochana attached to Donegal Division engaged in
criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their professional
duties between 1991 and 1998 received by the then Minister for Justice,
Equality and Law Reform Deputy O’Donoghue?
2. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
were the appendices to Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s report on
allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached to Donegal Division
engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their
professional duties between 1991 and 1998 received by the then Minister for
Justice, Equality and Law Reform Deputy O’Donoghue?
3. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
did then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Deputy O’Donoghue
receive the full investigation file of Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s
investigation into allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached
to Donegal Division engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the
execution of their professional duties between 1991 and 1998?
4. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
did then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Deputy O’Donoghue
receive Acting Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy’s August 4th 2000 thirty-seven
page synopsis of Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s investigation into
allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached to Donegal Division
engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their
professional duties between 1991 and 1998?
5. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
was the Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s report on allegations that
members of the Garda Siochana attached to Donegal Division engaged in
criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their professional
duties between 1991 and 1998 first received by him either in his current
position as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Deputy McDowell or
in his capacity as Attorney General?
6. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
were the appendices of the Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s report on
allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached to Donegal Division
engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their
professional duties between 1991 and 1998 first received by him either in
his current position as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Deputy
McDowell or in his capacity as Attorney General?
7. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
was Acting Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy’s August 4th 2000 thirty-seven
page synopsis of Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s investigation into
allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached to Donegal Division
engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their
professional duties between 1991 and 1998 first received by him either in
his current position as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform or in
his capacity as Attorney General?
8. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, on what date
was the full investigation file of Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s
investigation into allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached
to Donegal Division engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the
execution of their professional duties between 1991 and 1998 first received
by him either in his current position as Minister for Justice, Equality and
Law Reform Deputy McDowell or in his capacity as Attorney General?
9. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, to provide a
copy of then Minister of Justice, Equality and Law Reform Deputy
O’Donoghue’s May 2001 letter requesting advice as to the options available
to him in comprehensively reviewing the Donegal situation while civil and
criminal proceedings were pending, together with a copy of the schedule of
documents attached to that letter?
10. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, if and when
the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Deputy O’Donoghue
requested the Garda Siochana to deliver to the him as Attorney General the
report of Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s investigation into
allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached to Donegal Division
engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their
professional duties between 1991 and 1998 and to provide copies of any
correspondence relating to any such requests?
11. To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if and when he,
as Attorney General, had ever directly requested the Garda Siochana to
provide him with the report of Assistant Garda Commissioner Carty’s
investigation into allegations that members of the Garda Siochana attached
to Donegal Division engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the
execution of their professional duties between 1991 and 1998 and to provide
copies of any correspondence relating to any such request?
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