Call for unedited Monageer report to be read in Dáil

An edited report into the horrific deaths of the Dunne family in Co Wexford should be read out under the legal protection of the Dáil, it was claimed today.

The findings, which had dozens of blacked-out sections on the Attorney General’s advice, were branded a cover-up by the Labour Party.

Adrian Dunne strangled his wife Ciara before then hanging himself in their home in Monageer in April 2007. Their children – Leanne, five, and three-year-old Shania – were found smothered to death.

The report found the tragic killings would not have been stopped by a visit by the Garda or health workers.

“I’ve heard of a report being a whitewash, but this is more of a case of a blackwash,” Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said.

“Extraordinarily, and I’ve never seen this in an official report before, even the recommendations are blacked out!”

Mr Dunne, 29, and his 24-year-old wife Ciara made personal funeral arrangements for themselves and their children shortly before their deaths.

Mr Gilmore called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to make the full report available through an Oireachtas committee that would hear full details of the Dunne family life, their care and their deaths, under parliamentary privilege.

He questioned how the recommendations could be fully implemented when a number of them were blacked out.

“The report can be brought to a Committee of the House where it will enjoy the normal privilege of the House,” he told TDs.

The Taoiseach said the blacking out was for legal reasons and that the full report had been seen by Health Minister Mary Harney and Children’s Minister Barry Andrews.

“It is important to point out, not for the purpose of censoring the report, that these redactions took place,” he said.

“I want to make it clear that it is for legal reasons only that the redactions are there.”

Mr Cowen said Health Service Executive chief Prof Brendan Drumm would also be able to see report in full and consider its recommendations.

“There cannot be mass publication of the report, that’s the legal advice we have,” he added.

However, Mr Gilmore said the public and authorities needed to know what went wrong in the Dunne family case.

“It’s not a matter of curiosity, it’s a matter of learning lessons so this tragedy does not occur again,” he said.

“I have never seen a report where the recommendations were blacked out.

“How can we learn from a report when the recommendations are blanked out? This is a cover-up of some kind, it is not acceptable and should be put right.

“We need to know what went wrong here, Taoiseach.”

Other TDs such as Co Wexford representative Paul Kehoe, Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin of Sinn Féin called for an urgent Dáil debate on the findings of the report.

Fine Gael TD Dan Neville, who is chairman of an Oireachtas Sub-Committee on suicide issues, said local psychiatric services should have been alerted as soon as authorities had concerns for the welfare for the family.

Mr Cowen asked party whips to discuss a suitable time for a prompt debate on the Monageer deaths.