Legal assistance should be the minimum compensation given to a prisoner who was not informed for almost a year that his High Court application to contest the legality of his detention had failed, according to the Labour TD Mr Pat Rabbitte.
Mr Rabbitte (Dublin South-West) said the prisoner had been denied the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, within the 21-day deadline, because he not been informed after the High Court decision was made on May 14th last year, and it was an "abysmal failure" of the system.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, had conceded in a written reply this week to Mr Rabbitte that because of an "administrative error", the inmate of Wheatfield Prison, serving a four-year sentence, had not been informed of the High Court decision.
Mr O'Donoghue said a review of procedures for notifying applicants of the outcome of habeas corpus cases was being undertaken to avoid such mistakes occurring again. This review follows a meeting yesterday of the chief registrar of the High Court and Department officials.
Raising the issue on the adjournment yesterday, Mr Rabbitte demanded to know what steps the Minister would take to compensate the prisoner for the injustice done to him. "I would suggest that the very least that the Minister must do is to provide legal assistance to the prisoner, through the Attorney General scheme or some other mechanism, should he wish to reopen this matter before the courts."
