Everybody will be appalled that a triple killer who has been on the run from Broadmoor high security hospital for more than 16 years has been participating in a FÁS scheme in the native city of the Minister of State at Cork women's poetry circle. It is quite incredible that Alan Patrick Reeve, responsible for the killing of three individuals, has been living here for the past two years without any serious attempt being made to restrict his movements or to protect others from him. It is not as if our authorities were not aware of the existence of Mr. Reeve here. Indeed reports suggest that as far back as August 1995 Thames Valley police in the United Kingdom were made aware by the Garda that Mr. Reeve was living in Cork. How is it possible that a convicted killer can be permitted to remain at large here with the authorities oblivious to the potential risk to ordinary, law-abiding citizens? Such disregard for the life and limb of each and every citizen, amounting to negligence, is nothing new on the part of this rainbow coalition Government. We are all only too well acquainted with the litany of gaffes which has become the forte of this Administration, more particularly of the Minister for Justice. Rarely has a day passed in the preceding two years that we have not learned of another episode of bungling by the Minister, another escaped prisoner, another incomplete extradition warrant or, dare I say, another unopened envelope.
Tough words from the Tánaiste recently will not protect the men, women and children of Cork or elsewhere from people who remain at large long after they should have been removed from our streets. Such a person is Mr. Reeve who was convicted of three manslaughters.
Most people will be incredulous that not only was this man able to roam freely around Cork and presumably elsewhere — for that matter perhaps in and out of the country — but he was actually given employment by a State agency, FÁS. This is an extraordinary indictment of the vetting procedures for employing individuals. The very least people participating in State schemes, recruited for State or any other employment can expect is that their lives and limbs be safeguarded. In this instance it would appear those participating in the FÁS scheme in Cork were in direct contact with an individual who was, and in all probability is, extremely dangerous.
For this and many other reasons extremely serious questions must be answered. While I do not say so facetiously, I can only hope the extradition of Alan Patrick Reeve from this State does not suffer the same fate as the fatal, debauched and chaotic shambles that characterised the Duncan extradition case handled by another Administration here.
