MINISTER FOR Justice Brian Lenihan is to have a private meeting today with the family of two children who were killed by an Irish driver in Budapest eight years ago.
Ciarán Tobin, of Cairn Manor, Ratoath, Co Meath, was convicted in his absence by a Hungarian court of negligent driving causing the deaths of the children, aged five and two, in April 2000.
He was sentenced to three years in prison but this was reduced to 18 months on appeal.
A request by the Hungarian authorities for his extradition was refused last year by the High Court, which found Mr Tobin's departure from Hungary could not be defined as "fleeing", as had been contended on the extradition warrant.
The matter was raised yesterday with Mr Lenihan by his Hungarian counterpart, Tibor Draskovics, at a meeting in Budapest. Mr Draskovics later said the two had agreed to look at changes in the law "that would mean this could not happen again and to close loopholes like this".
About 50 protesters had waited outside the venue for the ministers' meeting yesterday in the hope of presenting Mr Lenihan with a petition asking for a review of the case by Irish officials.
They included Bence Zoltai, the father of Marton (5) and Petra (2) who were killed after the company Volvo car being driven by Mr Tobin mounted a footpath.
A spokesman for Mr Lenihan, however, denied that he had avoided the protesters.
"The Minister was speaking at a Law Society Event this morning during the time that these protests where happening.
"He did not meet with the [ Hungarian] minister until three o'clock today and when he met him, he went through the front door," he said.
"He was there to meet his counterpart, but he said he was more than willing to meet the family if they so wished.
"They have decided to take the Minister up on that offer and he will have a private meeting with them tomorrow [ Saturday] morning."
Mr Draskovics has faced criticism that his office has not done enough to pressure the Irish authorities to hand over Mr Tobin, but yesterday he said: "We have taken steps to ensure that if he ever leaves Ireland now, we can act to ensure he is arrested and extradited here."
The High Court was told last year that Mr Tobin's wife and two Irish friends were in the car at the time of the fatal collision. The following day, all four attended a police station, and made a statement with the assistance of a Hungarian lawyer.
Mr Tobin, a father of two, was arrested at his home in January 2006 on foot of a European arrest warrant issued by the Budapest authorities. At the time of the crash he had been working for Irish Life in Budapest for three years. Refusing the extradition request, Mr Justice Peart said that he accepted Mr Tobin's argument that he and his family left Hungary, on November 30th, 2000, following the completion of his work and that he never fled Hungary.