McDowell orders Sinn Féin case report
Mr McDowell requested the report following concerns raised by elected members of Sinn Féin regarding a garda investigation involving a senior party official, James Sheehan.
But the Justice Minister has rejected any need for an independent inquiry into the circumstances of the case.
Mr Sheehan, most recently director of elections for Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris, was arrested in August 1989 along with another person on suspicion of membership of an unlawful organisation.
In November 1989, a file was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions who directed in March 1990 that Mr Sheehan be charged for firearms offences. However, the DPP subsequently decided that no charges be brought.
Mr Sheehan later made a complaint to the Garda Complaints Board who in April 1992 concluded that it was satisfied that the matter had been thoroughly investigated.
The board ruled that neither an offence nor a breach of discipline on the part of any member of the gardaí had been disclosed.
Speaking in the Dáil Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said that gardaí had claimed to have found a gun in Mr Sheehan’s car and ammunition in his house.
He asked if these claims were true why had no charges been brought.
He said Mr Sheehan had made continual inquiries since his arrest as to why, if they existed, were the gun and ammunition destroyed in July 2000.
Responding, Mr McDowell said he was waiting to see the commissioner’s report into the matter.
“When I have seen it, I will be in a position to draw my private conclusions on some of the questions raised by the deputy. I will be in a position to decide whether to meet the deputy and other members of his party who have raised this issue.”
Mr McDowell added that the firearm in question had been destroyed along with thousands of other weapons, which had been seized over the previous 10 to 20 years.
Mr McDowell dismissed suggestions by Mr Ó Snodaigh that the circumstances of Mr Sheehan’s case was similar to allegations involving gardai in Donegal and that a similar tribunal should be set up.
