Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 7 Mar 1996

Vol. 462 No. 7

Written Answers. - Suspicious Death Investigation.

Robert Molloy

Question:

27 Mr. Molloy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps, if any, taken by his Department to assist a family (details supplied) in County Galway who are seeking a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a person (details supplied) who died in mysterious circumstances in London in December 1985; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5307/96]

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Spring)

This concerns a man who died from injuries sustained in a quarrel with another Irishman who was charged with his murder but acquitted. The family have been trying since 1986 to get explanations for apparent inconsistencies and gaps in information provided by the police, the hospital, the mortuary, the undertakers and the coroner about what happened in the time between the incident in which the man was injured and the funeral in Galway.

My Department and the Embassy in London have been supplementing the efforts of the family's solicitors to elucidate details of what occurred. Officials of my Department have had several meetings with a member of the family and the family has frequent contact with the Department and the Embassy. The Embassy wrote to the Home Office in November 1994 giving a general outline of the family's grievances and suspicions and asking that they be investigated. Subsequently, the Embassy discussed the matter with the Home Office and indicated that we would be taking up with them any additional specific points identified by the family's legal advisers as requiring explanation or clarification. The complex issues involved are essentially matters of law for clarification by legal advisers and, if necessary, by the courts.

Minister of State Deputy Burton has met and I have had two meetings with a member of the family in the past 12 months. We share the widespread sympathy that there is for them and fully understand their anxiety to have answers to their questions more than ten years after the death.

I have instructed the Embassy to continue to assist the family's legal advisers in any way they can. The Embassy are in regular contact with the solicitors whose work on the case they are continuing to monitor and to supplement as far as possible and appropriate.