Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 June 2016
75. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to meet with the family of a person (details supplied) to discuss its concerns in relation to the circumstances surrounding the death of the person. [16279/16]
View answerThe matter to which the Deputy refers has been the subject of a review carried out by counsel from the panel of the Independent Review Mechanism set up by the Government to consider complaints of Garda misconduct received by the Taoiseach and myself. The role of the Mechanism was to advise me as to what further action, if any, it was appropriate for me to take in respect of each complaint. Counsel were free to make any recommendation which they saw fit.
In this particular case counsel recommended that I seek a report from the Garda Commissioner. I accepted counsel's recommendation and a letter issued to the family notifying them accordingly. I should point out that the obtaining of this report from the Garda Commissioner was the extent to which counsel advised that I could proceed in this matter. On receipt of that report, I wrote to the family again and I sought to address the particular issues that concerned them based on the information provided to me by the Garda Commissioner.
In the circumstances, I do not believe that a meeting with the family would serve any useful purpose.
