Counsel for 36 gardaí challenging the Oireachtas inquiry into the shooting of John Carthy told the High Court today he did not want to stop the inquiry proceeding but to stop it proceeding in the manner it was.
Mr John Rogers SC reiterated his case that the Oireachtas subcommittee did not have the required statutory consent to direct gardaí to attend the hearings on the Abbeylara inquiry, and later concealed the absence of that consent.
Mr Rogers was continuing his opening submission to the Court on the challenge by gardaí to the inquiry of the subcommittee of the Oireachtas Joint Committee of Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights.
He told the High Court he had no problem with an inquiry into the Garda Commissioner's report on the shooting of Mr John Carthy, but not an inquiry into the findings of fact that may be adverse to the good name of a citizen.
The subcommittee was set up last March to report on the Commissioner’s report on the shooting dead of Mr Carthy at his home in Abbeylara on April 20th, 2000. Mr Carthy was shot four times by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit after a siege at the house.
Yesterday Mr Rogers said members of the subcomittee had asked questions of senior Garda officers that carried serious implications for his clients.
He also presented evidence to the High Court of what he claimed was the deliberate concealment of information, and suggested if the information had been known on the first day of the subcommittee’s hearing it would have made it unnecessary for gardaí to attend.
He told the High Court the subcommittee knowingly proceeded with the hearing on the basis it had consent to do so on April 24th, when in fact official consent was only guaranteed on April 30th.
Mr Rogers said the "on appro" [on approval] nature of the consent was deliberately deleted from the e-mailed notice and said it did not have the necessary backing of the Seanad and the Dáil.