Brendan McGahon
Question:23 Mr. McGahon asked the Minister for Justice if he will outline the progress which the Garda Síochána have made in investigating the murder of Tom Oliver in County Louth in July, 1991.
Written Answers. - Murder Investigation.
It has never been the practice for Ministers for Justice to report to the House on the progress of specific Garda investigations. I do not propose to depart from that practice now other than to say that the Garda investigation into this brutal murder is continuing.
The Provisional IRA, who claimed responsibility for the murder of Mr. Oliver, attempted at the time to somehow justify this terrible crime. The response they received from the people of the Cooley area, and from the rest of the country, has been one of total and utter rejection and condemnation. The people of this island are sick and tired of the continuing atrocities of the Provisional IRA who are responsible for a long litany of murder and mayhem, North and South and further afield, for the past twenty years. The revulsion and contempt felt by the people of Cooley, and by Irish people generally, as a result of this crime was accompanied also by an acute awareness of the evil threat posed by the Provisional IRA to every member of the community and to the democratic institutions of our State.
There is a responsibility on all of us to ensure that the policy of intimidation by terror as practised by the Provisional IRA is resisted and that we support and co-operate with the forces of law and order who act on behalf of, and with the consent of, the community. It must be made clear to those who wish to have their way by violence and terror that their policies and methods are unacceptable and that we reject them out of hand.