Govt to issue apology to family of Shane O'Farrell
The Government will issue an apology to the family of a Co Monaghan man who was killed in a hit-and-run incident almost 14 years ago.
The apology follows years of campaigning by the family of 23-year-old Shane O'Farrell, who was killed while out cycling near his home in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, on 2 August 2011.
The driver of the car, Zigimantas Gridziuska, should have been in custody at the time of the killing.
Gridziuska left the scene but later handed himself into gardaí.
Gridzuiska had been a regular defendant before the District and Circuit Criminal courts in Monaghan, Cavan and Louth in the years prior to the killing.
Seven months before the hit-and-run, he was before the Circuit Criminal Court on a number of theft charges.
Judge John O'Hagan deferred his sentencing on that day, but ordered that the Lithuanian national be brought back before him if he committed any more offences and he would be jailed.
Just months later, Gridziuska was convicted of five charges of theft at Ardee District Court - but he was not brought back before Judge O'Hagan as ordered and received a suspended sentence.
The judge at the Ardee court was not informed of Judge O'Hagan's order.
This afternoon, following years of campaigning by the O'Farrell family, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan will offer them a public apology in Dáil.
The family have long called for a public inquiry to be set up into the justice system that they say "failed" Shane - something that Minister O'Callaghan also previously called for when in opposition.
The O'Farrell family are expected to be in the Dáil to hear the apology.
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