Parties seek Boylan answers

Fianna Fáil and Sinn Fein have joined forces in attempts to grill the Justice Minister over allegations of Garda collusion with a convicted drug trafficker.

Padraig Mac Lochlainn and Niall Collins have had individual requests to raise the Garda Ombudsman report as a topical issue in the Dáil knocked back two days in a row.

Sinn Fein’s Mr Mac Lochlainn said Justice Minister Alan Shatter had a duty to respond to questions arising from the report and that he would continue pushing for a debate.

“It’s our statutory responsibility in the Oireachtas to follow up on reports of the Ombudsman and to ensure that the concerns raised in the report are seen,” Mr Mac Lochlainn said.

The watchdog report alleged that elite Garda officers turned a blind-eye to Kieran Boylan’s drug dealing in exchange for information on other dealers.

It also accused the force of withholding vital evidence from its inquiry into the affair.

Mr Mac Lochlainn said both he and Mr Collins would continue requesting the case be considered for topical issues – the selection for which operates on a lottery system.

This follows calls from Ireland’s information commissioner Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly for more light to be shone on the allegations in the report.

She said the public had been left puzzled by the lack of details about the Boylan case.