asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether he has been or will be represented at the inquest proceedings concerning the death, outside the jurisdiction, of an Irish citizen who was resident in County Donegal.
19.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Death of Irish Citizen.
18.
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the inquiries he has made into the circumstances surrounding the shooting of an Irish citizen (name supplied) who was resident in County Donegal and who was shot on a concession road near the Donegal border recently; and whether he has taken or proposes to take any action in the matter.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 19 together.
We have asked the British authorities for a full report about the circumstances in which the person concerned lost his life. They have indicated that police investigations into the incident are incomplete and that a date for the inquest has not yet been fixed. In these circumstances it would not be appropriate for me to make any comment on the matter.
May I ask for the date? The Minister said in his reply that the British authorities were asked for information as to when.
The reply does not say when. It was, in fact, early this month. The date I referred to here is a reference to the fact that the date of the inquest has not yet been fixed.
Sorry. I did not hear the Minister properly. Did he state in his reply the date on which the request was made to the authorities, British or otherwise, for information about this incident?
No, I did not state the date in the reply as to when the request was made. In fact, I think the request was made on 8th June but there may have been other communications in addition to that.
Can the Minister give any assurance whatsoever that our citizens, particularly those living along the Border, will in any way be protected from violence such as caused the death of this young man who was traversing the only road that connects his place of residence with the rest of the county in which he lives, namely, Donegal, when he was shot?
The circumstances of the death of the person concerned were singularly tragic. In the present situation in Northern Ireland we can give no assurance of ability to protect the lives of our citizens in Northern Ireland but anything we can do, we do, and in cases like this we seek information and express our concern to the authorities in question.
May I ask the Minister why there was not an immediate, spontaneous protest against the brutal manner in which this man was shot down by the RUC? Why was it that not until at least a couple of weeks after the event anything was put on record at all, even expressing our concern over, never mind resentment of this sort of thing?
I do not want to mislead the Deputy. I am not certain whether we communicated prior to that date but a particular request was made for a report on the incident on the 8th June. There may have been a prior communication but I am not sure of that from the information I have here. I am not in a position to reply with certainty.
The only thing that I would——
I have given the Deputy a good deal of latitude. I would be grateful if he would appreciate the Chair's difficulty in trying to make progress.
I appreciate that the Chair has given quite some latitude but I have two very important questions down in respect of a young man who got very little latitude. May I finally ask the Minister whether in all future cases there will be an immediate effort by our Government on behalf of our citizens to find out the circumstances of any injury or death caused? This information should be sought immediately and public protest should be made about these things instead of waiting until the authorities there have killed the matter by the lapse of time. It is no longer news and it makes it less difficult for them to explain themselves away.
In view of the number of tragic deaths of our citizens in Northern Ireland at the hands of a wide variety of people, it is difficult to say what action we would take in any particular circumstances. Where the death is attributable to the authorities in Northern Ireland, as in this instance, at least there is an authority with which we can deal and from which we can get a response. In the majority of cases we do not have any authority to refer to and means of acting are very limited. I am sure Deputy Blaney would wish us to be equally concerned about the deaths of innocent people regardless of who kills them. In many cases we have no recourse at all. Where the authorities in the North are involved, we are in a position to take the action which seems appropriate in each case. But there is a very wide variety of cases in a very complex situation and I cannot give a blanket reply to a rather hypothetical question.