The mother of a man murdered in Co Meath in July 2014 has said she is "horrified" that a man convicted of withholding information in relation to the case has been released from jail after serving just over one month.
Seven years after Paul Gallagher was murdered in a field, Seán Barrett, a 33-year-old from Donaghmede in Dublin, is the only one person who has ever been charged in connection with the case.
Mr Barrett was released from prison on temporary release last Thursday, after serving just 40 days of his six-month sentence.
"I was absolutely horrified. I was gutted," Ger, Paul Gallagher’s mother, told Prime Time.
"It took five years in court to get to where we got."
After pleading guilty to the charge of withholding information, Mr Barrett was on 5 March handed down a sentence of two years, with 18 months of that suspended.
Specifically, Mr Barrett failed to tell Gardaí, when first interviewed as a witness, that he knew the first names of two men who had travelled with himself and Mr Gallagher to Ballymacan in Co Meath that fateful night.
Mr Gallagher, a 26-year-old father of one, was shot in the back and neck. His body wasn’t found until two days after the killing.
"The judge said he was getting a six-month sentence to act as a deterrent," said Marie Gallagher, Paul’s sister.
"So how does it act as a deterrent if you only serve 40 days," she said.
"Six months I don’t believe would act as a deterrent anyway, but 40 days – it’s a slap in the face."
Paul Gallagher was shot dead in a field in Co Meath in July 2014. No one has been brought to justice for the murder.
The Gallagher family were not informed about Mr Barrett’s release, nor were the Gardaí.
Instead, they found out by chance when someone spotted Mr Barrett in recent days.
Marie Gallagher said that the Victim Liaison Office told her that Mr Barrett was not deemed a danger to the public.
Temporary release is granted by the Irish Prison Service, which has authority from the Department of Justice.
The Irish Prison Service told Prime Time that, when granting temporary release, several criteria are taken into account, including "the nature and gravity of the offence, length of sentence served to date, prior record on temporary release, and behaviour while in custody and previous criminal history".
As of tonight, there are 309 prisoners on temporary release. There are 3,764 prisoners actually in prison and there are 449 spare prison beds free tonight, primarily so that the Prison Service can keep prison members low during the pandemic.
