I, too, welcome Lucia and Jim and their daughters, and, indeed, brothers, and their little grandchild today. They should not have to be here. What kind of a cabal of a country are we running? That is all I can call it. I have been in this House for 16 years and I have seen a litany of injustices and cover-ups, from Whiddy Island, ever before I came in here, to the Fr. Niall Molloy killing in Offaly. We had two young men killed off Helvick Head, 11 years ago now, and the cover-ups there by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board. We have the Omagh bombings and, God knows, the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. All covered up, none investigated. What kind of a system? Deputy McEntee is there now, sitting pretty as Minister, and she is happy to come in here, I might add, on her own – there is not a Fine Gael backbencher present – to allow this stinking cover-up rotten system that we have that denies justice to these good people. It is a shame and a disgrace that any family should have to go through this and to investigate this themselves because it was not investigated.
We decided, as Deputy McGuinness said, to initiate a public inquiry but the system covered it up again and set it up as a scoping inquiry. They got a retired member of the Judiciary. Is it any wonder maybe the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022 has been referred to the Council of State and now to the Supreme Court? Mind the house at all cost. Cover up everything. Do not allow anything. People are out there crying for justice. People have been dragged out of their homes by thugs from other jurisdictions, and gardaí standing watching, at the behest of the banks. This is a sick disgusting State that we have now today.
These people go on for that length of time and all the judge could find is whether he had a light on his bike. It is like something that went on with the Peep-of-Day Boys or when the Garda pulled in people for not having lights on their bikes and donkeys and carts. In the name of God, such humiliation to put a family through when all they want is justice.
A man, who had a career of up to 40 previous convictions and was wanted in three jurisdictions, was driving around and stopped at a checkpoint a hour before it happened. He went off, did not stop at the scene, hid the car at a friend’s house and then he got the option to leave. We do not know now whether he is back in the country or not. That is the kind of Republic that we have, that the men of 1916 and 1921 and 1923 fought for. It is a shame and the Minister should be ashamed of her Department of Justice.
I have raised what is going on in the Prison Service with the Minister. I refer to the humiliation and degrading of prison officers. A dirty cabal again, and what is going on is disgusting .
Fr. Niall Molloy is in his grave all those years and no investigation and no justice, and here today Shane O’Farrell. I am sorry for raising my voice but I am so angry to think that we have a system, we have the name of democracy in this country but we have no accountability. There are juntas in different countries that are more democratic than us and more fair than us. It is sad to have to say that, 16 and a half years since I came into this House, and I was on the local authority before that.
It is such a rotten system. Cover-up is the name of the game. Preserve, and preserve the system. The system has failed so many people and will fail so many more.
The Omagh bomb was the same, where that bomb was transported from Tipperary right up to Omagh. It should have been stopped, but no. He was working for MI5, and a cover- up. It is disgusting.
