O'Rourke clarifies remark in relation to murder of Latvian

Seanad: House leader Mary O'Rourke made a statement of clarification on comments she had made earlier about the murder of a …

Seanad:House leader Mary O'Rourke made a statement of clarification on comments she had made earlier about the murder of a young Latvian mother in north Dublin last Sunday.

Ms O'Rourke had said: "It's difficult to read the article where the Latvian woman's husband, in the Irish Independent today, is suspected. He has a cast-iron alibi, but obviously was able to direct operations."

She later returned to the chamber to say that she might have inadvertently given the impression that the murder of Baiba Saulite had been guided by a particular person.

"I cannot do that, nor should I do it. I have great faith in the Garda and our justice system and I am sure that whoever carried out that dreadful crime will be brought to justice."

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Ms O'Rourke had initially been responding to Sheila Terry (FG), who spoke of her distress over the murders of 125 women in the last 10 years.

"There are many thousands of women out there who are suffering silently, and some of those women will end up being murdered eventually as well. I just feel that we are not coming to grips with it, and I suppose we could link that in with the level of crime that's out there today - the most serious crime where life means absolutely nothing."

It seemed very crass that there was going to be a court case to see if a ruling concerning two dyslexic former Leaving Certificate students could be reversed in favour of the Department of Education, House leader Mary O'Rourke said. She thought it was ingrained within the Civil Service that if a court case was lost, it should be automatically appealed and expensive solicitors and barristers hired.

As minister for education, she had intervened a couple of times and had said there was no point in pursuing cases.

Ms O'Rourke told Ulick Burke (FG) that she fully agreed with him that the case should not be appealed. "I am going to pass on to the Minister's office today what was said here."

Joe O'Toole (Ind) said it would be wrong of the department to appeal the equality tribunal finding in favour of two former Leaving Cert students.