Bereaved family billed for documents despite waiver

A man whose wife and daughter were killed in a road crash has received a bill of €1,940 from gardaí for documents related to the case.

The bill was sent to Noel Clancy from Cork, despite an announcement last year from gardaí that families of people who died in collisions would not be charged fees for documents from January 1st this year.

But although the announcement was made, no directive was sent out from headquarters to instruct gardaí to stop seeking fees from bereaved families.

Geraldine (58) and Louise Clancy (22) died in December 2015, when the car in which they were travelling was involved in a crash and turned over into a flooded ditch.

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The inquest into their deaths finished in February 2017, after which Mr Clancy sought the garda documents.

On May 24th, through his solicitor, he received the bill from Fermoy District, for €1,940. Mr Clancy said he was “absolutely stunned”.

“It looks like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing with the gardaí,” he said.

Responding to queries from The Irish Times, a garda spokesman said the directive on fees had been finalised and would be issued to all stations, "in early course". He also said Mr Clancy's fees would be waived.