Report into fatal shooting by gardaí expected next month

THE report into the fatal shooting of John Carthy by gardaí at Abbeylara six years ago will be published next month.

The Taoiseach told the Dáil yesterday that Mr Justice Robert Barr, who chaired the tribunal of inquiry into the incident, had completed his report and that it was ready for printing.

The Department of Justice, which appointed Mr Justice Barr, would be responsible for presenting the report to the Dáil and Seanad.

“[The Justice Minister] expects to be in a position to report to the Oireachtas in early to mid-July,” Mr Ahern said.

He was responding to Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, who queried the length of time it was taking for the document to be published.

“I get the impression the Government is trying to delay certain reports until after the Dáil goes into [summer] recess,” Mr Rabbitte said. “What kind of modern democracy have we that we still have not got the report in 2006?”

While he did not want to second-guess the tribunal, he felt the killing of Mr Carthy “in the given circumstances was needless”.

It would not be satisfactory for the report to be published during the recess, which begins on July 6 and runs until late September, Mr Rabbitte said.

“This is not demonstrating any respect for either the Carthy family or this house. The people are concerned about it and we ought to do them the justice of discussing the report fairly,” Mr Rabbitte said.

But the Taoiseach assured him that the Government was not purposely delaying the report.

“I will ask [the Justice Minister] if it can be received in early July. I would have no difficulty in having it published before then,” he said.

The tribunal was established in 2002 to investigate the shooting of 27-year-old Mr Carthy on April 20, 2000, following a 25-hour stand-off at his family home.

Mr Carthy, a manic depressive, was shot four times by two members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit after he emerged from the house carrying a shotgun and ignored orders to drop the weapon.