Family cautiously welcomes report

Reaction:The family of the late John Carthy has given a cautious welcome to the publication of the Garda Inspectorate recommendations on Garda management of barricade incidents.

Mr Carthy was shot dead by gardaí outside his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford, in April 2000.

His sister, Marie Carthy, was last night continuing to review the inspectorate's report with her legal advisers. However she said she welcomed that the "first visible initiative" had been taken in response to the Barr report on Mr Carthy's death, seven months after its publication.

In a statement last night the Carthy family said it was anxious that "clear and well-resourced structures at senior Garda management level were put in place to respond in full to the recommendations arising from both the report of the Barr tribunal and that of the Garda Inspectorate".

The family was also concerned that proper timeframes be put in place for the implementation of the recommendations contained in both reports.

"It is almost seven years since John was killed, and comprehensive and timely actions now need to be implemented to ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again," the statement said.

The breadth of the inspectorate's recommendations showed that the Garda "still had a long way to go" in this regard.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell welcomed the inspectorate's report, which was put before both houses of the Oireachtas yesterday afternoon.

He particularly welcomed the recommendation to establish a "second tier" Garda response which would deal with incidents prior to the arrival of the Emergency Response Unit.

"On the publication of this report, our first thoughts must be with the family of John Carthy. His death was a terrible tragedy.

"This report affords an opportunity to learn from what happened at Abbeylara so that, so far as humanly possible, such deaths can be avoided in the future," Mr McDowell said.