A decision has not yet been made on which member of Cabinet will take responsibility for considering and acting on a Parole Board report on convicted murderer Malcolm Macarthur.
The report, which is understood to recommend that Macarthur be moved to an open prison to test his suitability for release, has been sent to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. However, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, cannot decide whether Macarthur should be released as he was a junior counsel in Macarthur's defence.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice last night said officials were examining how Mr McDowell's responsibility could be transferred to another Minister but it had not been decided who this other Minister would be.
Macarthur was jailed for life in 1982 for the murder of Ms Bridie Gargan, a nurse, while she was sunbathing in the Phoenix Park. He was also sought in connection with the murder two days later of Offaly farmer Mr Donal Dunne, but the DPP decided not to prosecute him for this murder because he had pleaded guilty to the murder of Ms Gargan.
The Dunne family believes Macarthur still poses a threat to themselves and society. Yesterday, a spokesperson for the Gargan family refused to comment.
The chief executive of Victim Support, Ms Lilian McGovern, said she could not comment on the case. This was because she was a member of the Parole Board.
Dr Valerie Bresnihan, chairwoman of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said it was "an extraordinary difficult" time for the families of the victims. She called on the State to provide a counselling or support system for families of murder victims.
However, she said the Parole Board decision should be respected. "Advocates of victims are actually on the Parole Board and they would have been involved in interviewing Macarthur and reporting back to the Parole Board, so it seems to me a commonsense approach must be taken despite the difficulties involved, in particular for the families."
She said Macarthur had served 20 years which was actually a life sentence in modern prison terms.
Another member of the Penal Reform Trust, Ms Helen Haughton, said yesterday that Macarthur should not have served 20 years. She believed eight years would have been "plenty" because the longer people were kept in prison the more difficult it was to reintegrate them into society.
Labour's spokesman on justice, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said the decision should be left to the Parole Board.