Derry Sinn Fein Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Administrative error saw McDermott Brothers allowed to return to Donagh - Justice Committee vice_chair

Published: 3 September, 2010

Sinn Féin Justice Committee vice-Chair Raymond McCartney MLA (Foyle) has said that the society will be deeply shocked after it was revealed by Department of Justice Officials at today's Justice Committee meeting, that an administrative error was responsible for seeing the return of the McDermott brothers to a County Fermanagh village.

Raymond McCartney said;

"At today's meeting of the Justice committee Department Officials have revealed that an administrative error allowed the return of the McDermott Brothers to their home village of Donagh in County Fermanagh.

"It would appear that the original court judgement contained a Residency Order which essentially means that the Western Trust, through their Social Workers, had the authority to decide where the brothers could reside and could have determined that Donagh was not an appropriate location.

"What transpired was that the Order was not identified by the various agencies responsible, including the Western Trust and therefore an incident which caused deep hurt and anxiety in the village of Donagh and subsequently in Derry could have been avoided.

"I will be contacting the Ministers of Justice and Health asking them to investigate further how this unacceptable error was allowed to go unnoticed in such a controversial case and what measures can be taken to ensure that there can be no repeat of this type of error in the future."