Government's decision to delay in forensic lab funds ‘cynical’

The State’s forensic science chief has described as cynical the Government’s decision to delay funding for a much-needed forensic laboratory until 2019.

Sheila Willis said she was “devastated” when Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald announced the funding date last September at the launch of a plan on justice capital projects.

The director general of Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) was responding to the publication in the Irish Examiner yesterday of letters she wrote to the Department of Justice outlining her “extreme concern” at the delayed start date for the new facility.