The sister of missing Kilkenny woman Ms Jo Jo Dullard will today begin an eight-day visit to the US to highlight the lack of a special Garda missing persons bureau in Ireland.
Ms Mary Phelan and Kilkenny TD Mr John McGuinness were due to leave Ireland this morning on a flight to Washington. They are to meet a number of senators and congressmen in the city and in New York. They will also hold meetings with the FBI and police officers from a special US bureau for missing persons.
Ms Dullard (21), from Callan, Co Kilkenny went missing in November 1995 and was last seen in Moone, Co Kildare. Ms Phelan told The Irish Times she will be urging the US politicians she meets to raise the lack of a missing persons unit here with Irish politicians visiting the US for St Patrick's Day.
"We are hoping that this trip will raise awareness that we in Ireland do not have adequate facilities in terms of searching for missing people and also in terms of supporting the families of missing persons," she said.
Ms Phelan said funds should be provided to establish a support group for families. "When you look at cases like Jessica (Chapman) and Holly (Wells) in Soham, it is very clear that the police in places like the UK are far better at this kind of investigation than the guards are."
Mr McGuinness said the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, had been reluctant to establish a special missing persons unit with specially trained gardaí. Under Commissioner Byrne, the Gardaí established Operation Trace in 1998 as part of the investigation into the disappearance of six women in the Leinster area. One of the women was Ms Dullard.
Mr Byrne said in a recent interview the lack of progress in the search for the women was the biggest disappointment of his term as Garda Commissioner.
