Pressure grows to publish Carty Report

The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell must publish in full an internal garda probe into corruption in the Co Donegal division, it was claimed today.

Fine Gael MEP Senator Jim Higgins said the public was entitled to know what was contained in the Carty Report compiled by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty during 1999 and 2000.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell admitted during a Dáil debate on the Morris Tribunal yesterday that he could have acted sooner if he had received the entire document at an earlier stage.

The Tribunal’s second report ruled that a garda investigation into the 1996 death of cattle dealer Richie Barron was utterly negligent and Frank McBrearty Jnr and his cousin Mark McConnell were deliberately framed for the murder.

Senator Higgins said today that yesterday’s admission by Mr McDowell was “sensational”.

“Quite obviously the reason for the resistance by the Garda authorities was that they did not want the material in the Carty Report to come into the public domain.

“The public is entitled to know the full content of the Carty Report and to see at firsthand the reason that Garda HQ attempted to sweep its contents under the carpet. I now call on Minister McDowell to immediately publish the Report in full.”

Mr McBrearty is suing the State for damages and there could be up to 150 other cases pending by alleged victims of garda harassment.

The Garda Commissioner revealed last night that a 37-page summary of the complete Carty Report was given to the Justice Department in 2000.

A spokesman added: “Assistant Commissioner Carty began his investigation in the Donegal garda division in February 1999.

“It was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for directions as to what, if any, criminal proceedings should ensue in July 2000.

“A copy of his report was submitted to the Commissioner, who in turn forwarded a summary, consisting of 37 pages, to the Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform on August 4, 2000."

Mr McDowell told the Dáil yesterday that and his predecessor John O’Donoghue only received extracts of the Carty Report in the summer of 2000 because the DPP had to consider it first.

He said: “Lawyers on my behalf [as Attorney General] repeatedly sought the full factual matrix of the situation that was emerging in Co Donegal… but they were repeatedly kept away from it at that time,” he said.

“But it had the wholly unacceptable effect that the Carty report was not delivered in its entirety either to myself or to Mr O’Donoghue at a time when its full contents would have been definitely of interest to us and enabled to make earlier judgements.”