Frances Fitzgerald: SF ‘using’ malpractice complaints

Sinn Féin has been accused of "using" families who claim to be victims of Garda malpractice by comparing their treatment by the Government to that of Belfast rape victim Maíria Cahill.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said it was “disingenuous” of Sinn Féin to compare her failure to meet families who allege miscarriages of justice with the Taoiseach’s decision to meet Ms Cahill.

She was responding to Sinn Féin’s spokesman for justice Padriaig Mac Lochlainn, who said that, “for reasons of political opportunism”, Ms Fitzgerald had “embraced one particular case and ignored many families in this State”.