The matter I am raising on the Adjournment this evening is one with which the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is familiar — he raised it himself on many occasions when he was Opposition spokesperson. This is a matter of fundamental importance to the public interest in relation to the administration of justice and the protection of human life.
In March 1985, the body of John Corcoran of Riverview Estate, Ballyvolane, County Cork, was found dumped outside Cork city, the murder apparently having taken place in County Kerry. It has been widely reported in recent times that he was murdered by the IRA on the instructions of the chief of staff and that the Garda Síochána were aware, from information received over some days previously, that Mr. Corcoran was going to be murdered. A statement issued by the Department of Justice on 8 December 1997 stated that the Minister for Justice had sought a full report on all aspects of this matter a short time after he took up office in the middle of 1997. What I would like to know this evening is whether the Minister has that report and if he is going to make it public.
A number of very serious questions have been raised in the reporting of this matter in the public domain in recent months. It seems that some concerned members of the Garda Síochána were to the fore in supplying the media with information in relation to the circumstances surrounding this murder. I have questions I would like the Minister to address. Did the Garda have prior knowledge of the IRA's plan to murder John Corcoran? If so, why was no action taken to prevent the murder and to arrest those who were torturing him? Why have the Garda not interviewed Mr. Sean O'Callaghan who has publicly confessed to carrying out this murder on IRA instructions and why has he not been brought in for questioning by the Garda since he made his public confession? Can the Minister explain to the House the statement from the Garda in December 1996 to the effect that the Corcoran case had been fully investigated and that a file was on its way to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the contradiction of that statement from the Garda press office about one week later to the effect that the investigation had not been completed? I would remind the Minister — I am probably reminding him of a concern which he shares — of the concern of the Corcoran family to get full and vital information in relation to this dreadful murder. Every effort should be made not only to establish the facts and to bring those involved in this murder before the courts but to establish the truth and the sequence of events which led to the callous murder of John Corcoran. I appeal to the Minister to be forthcoming and to put all the information on the record.