The Garda report into the death of Mr John Carthy at Abbeylara should be published shortly, with steps being taken in the Dail this week to refer the report to an all-party Oireachtas committee.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said yesterday that he would be having a meeting with the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, to finalise the wording of a motion to refer the report to the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights.
The Fine Gael chief whip, Mr Charles Flanagan, told The Irish Times he expected that once the members took the decision to publish the report they might decide to request witnesses to give evidence, possibly including the gardai involved.
For the report to be referred to the committee, motions must be moved in both the Dail and Seanad, and this could be done by next week. "If there are questions, and I think it is fair to assume there will be, the committee will have to decide the extent to which they will engage in an evidential process and if all interested parties would be involved," Mr Flanagan said.
In August, Mr Jim Higgins TD (FG) called for publication of the report. Replying, Mr O'Donoghue said he had already agreed in the Dail that the findings of the inquiry should be referred to the committee as soon as it was appropriate. He was taking this approach since the DPP had indicated that nobody should be prosecuted for Mr Carthy's death.
The Minister said he hoped to arrange for these motions to be taken immediately on the resumption of both Houses after the summer recess.
He proposed to ask the committee, when the report had been referred to it, to consider sympathetically, as a first step, the request made by the solicitor acting for the Carthy family that the members of the family should see the report before publication.
The chairman of the committee, Mr Sean Ardagh (FF), said that this request would be given consideration by the committee. "I wouldn't have a problem with that," he added.
Mr Ardagh said he believed there was a strong public interest in publishing the report as soon as possible.