MEMBERS of Donegal County Council have again passed a motion calling for the establishment of an Independent Statutory Judicial Public Inquiry into the Creeslough explosion.
The motion, which received unanimous support, was tabled at today’s Plenary Meeting of the council by Cllr Frank McBrearty and seconded by Cllr Tomás Seán Devine.
Ten people died in the explosion in Creeslough on October 7, 2022.
In an emotional statement at today’s council meeting in Lifford, Cllr McBrearty said that an Independent Statutory Judicial Public Inquiry is the only way the families of those who died will ever get any real justice.
He had tabled the same motion last year and insisted then that the inquiry must be called in the first 100 days by the incoming government.
However, it took ten months for Minister for Justice, Jim Callaghan, to even issue a response.
Speaking today, Cllr McBrearty said the delay showed the lack of understanding from the minister.
In the response, the minister said he was aware that there were calls from the bereaved family members for a public inquiry and outlined that a separate public inquiry would compromise the ongoing criminal investigation.
Cllr McBrearty wholeheartedly refuted this response and described it as “misleading the families who are desperate for the full truth and justice they’re entitled to”.
He cited the Morris Tribunal in 2002 and said this set a precedent to allow a public inquiry to be established while other investigations were ongoing, which, he said, contradicts Minister O’Callaghan’s response.
“This response is the root of the problem in Irish society today and has been for many years. The state and agencies of the state investigating themselves is the problem,” the independent councillor said.
He went on to describe it as “an Irish solution to an Irish problem”.
Cllr McBrearty stressed that there is a “lack of transparency and accountability” since the tragedy, and that a public inquiry would ensure that what happened in Creeslough will never be allowed to happen again.
He called out Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael county councillors in the chamber and said they have a “moral obligation and duty on behalf of the victims and their families to put pressure on their government party colleagues to establish the much needed public inquiry.”
He also called out opposition parties and said they should be leading the calls for a public inquiry in the Dáil.
