A Supreme Court judge has upheld the central challenge to the proposed Oireachtas inquiry into the fatal Garda shooting of John Carthy at Abbeylara, Co Longford, while saying the High Court's declaration against parliamentary fact-finding was framed too broadly.
John Carthy died after being shot by Gardaí at Abbeylara on 20 April 2000. A sub-committee of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights later began a public inquiry. Garda members compelled to attend challenged its powers and procedures.
The High Court quashed the committee resolution extending the inquiry's terms of reference and the directions requiring the Garda applicants to attend, give evidence and produce documents. It also declared broadly that Oireachtas members could not conduct public inquiries capable of making adverse findings against non-members.
Mrs Justice McGuinness agreed that the Abbeylara inquiry itself went beyond the constitutional powers available to the joint committee. She accepted that the Oireachtas has an implied power to inquire where necessary to perform its constitutional functions. However, a joint Dáil-Seanad committee could not use that power to conduct an adjudicative investigation into individual culpability where the inquiry was not genuinely directed towards legislation.
She said the Abbeylara process had moved towards determining facts and attributing blame to individual Gardaí. Such findings could seriously damage constitutional rights to good name and livelihood even without imposing a legal penalty.
The judge also upheld objections to the directions compelling the Garda applicants to appear. Written consent required under the 1997 compellability legislation had not existed when those directions were issued.
She further found deficiencies in fair procedures, including unclear terms of reference and proposed restrictions and delays on cross-examination. Public statements by some committee members also created objective-bias concerns.
Mrs Justice McGuinness would therefore dismiss the appeal. However, she considered the High Court's general declaration too wide and favoured a declaration confined specifically to the Abbeylara inquiry.