Carlow shooting must be the catalyst for sweeping reform of our bail laws. Ken O’Flynn

Carlow shooting must be the catalyst for sweeping reform of our bail laws. Ken O’Flynn

Independent Ireland TD for Cork North-Central Ken O’Flynn has praised the response of local gardaí and emergency response units following the shooting incident in Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Carlow Town on Sunday evening. He also took the opportunity to call for a radical reassessment of the current bail laws.

Deputy O’Flynn was speaking after it was confirmed by the Irish Mirror that the suspected shooter Mr Evan Fitzgerald, was facing an imminent court appearance on 13 firearms and explosive charges. It is also understood that Mr Evans had recently been granted bail following his initial appearance before the court on those same charges:

“In February of this year minister Jim O’Callaghan confirmed to the Dail that when considering a bail application in accordance with the Bail Act 1997, the Court is required to have regard to the nature and likelihood of any danger to a person, or to the community, arising from the granting of bail. In light of that very salient fact, it is now blindingly obvious that the safety of the community was not taken into sufficient consideration when it should have been paramount to the exclusion of all other considerations.”

“As dreadful and as terrifying as this situation was for all involved, it had the potential to be a catastrophic situation with multiple fatalities. It was sheer luck, the grace of God, call it what you want, that we are not here today preparing for multiple funerals. My deep concern as a legislator is that these potential outcomes remain a real possibility with respect to some individual persons who may come before the courts on similar grave charges in the future.”

“Effectively we have a bail law system that is a threat to life and security. That system appears to deprioritise innocent people and innocent communities while granting disproportionate consideration to the rights of the accused, even where there is a clear history and pattern of lawbreaking behaviour. Those deficits that exist must be rectified with immediate effect.”

“We also need to give more sustained attention to the use of electronic tagging and as important, the monitoring resources to back them up in terms of securing their effectiveness.”

“As I understand it, from data placed before the Dáil following a PQ from another party, the combined figure for the past three years for suspects implicated in crime while out on bail amounted to 114,655. That is a level of monstrous injustice to communities that the Minister and the Government must urgently work to tackle and reduce.”