Gardai challenge political make-up of Committee

The High Court challenge by lawyers for gardai involved in the shooting dead of John Carthy is continuing.

Representatives of nine Emergency Respone Unit members are seeking a judicial review of the Oireachteas Committee's procedures and its authority to issue summonses.

In court 15 of the High Court the nine ERU members, including the two who shot John Carthy, object to the Oireachteas Committee's power to establish matters of fact.

Senior Counsel for the gardai, John Rogers, argues TDs who are elected officials in need of public support, are incapable of discharging their function of establishing fact and resolving conflicts of fact.

The gardai say the proper way to proceed is with a tribunal of inquiry and that if the Oireachteas Committee were to proceed, the careers of ERU members could be adversely affected by a committee that the gardai say is not properly established.