Taoiseach pledges to ‘directly’ intervene over status of ‘totally inadequate’ probe into missing Cavan woman

Jean Tighe was 38-years-old when she vanished without a trace from the Portuguese town of Parede on July 13, 2020.

Her disappearance, over the intervening four years has thrown repeated doubts on both the investigation’s progress and all-round effectiveness.

Much of that disquiet has questions as to why it took three years before her name was added to Portugal’s missing persons database.

Now, and following fresh calls from Cavan-Monaghan TD Brendan Smith in the Dáil, Mr Harris has agreed to involve himself directly in a bid to shed further light on the status of the Portuguese led investigation.

“A member of An Garda Síochána in Portugal, the Irish Embassy in Lisbon and the ambassador have engaged with Portuguese police a number of times,” Mr Harris said, as he revealed how former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had also attempted to engage with the Portuguese government.

“The Tighe family has also been working with a family liaison officer. In August of last year, An Garda Síochána and the Portuguese police met via video conference and Ms Tighe’s photo and profile was added to the Portuguese police’s missing persons website.

“My predecessor raised the matter with the then Prime Minister of Portugal. I will now directly seek an update myself.

“I say to the Tighe family that I am very happy to raise the matter with my counterpart in Portugal and to come back to Deputy Smith directly.”

The Cavan-Monaghan TD, for his part, branded the response and ensuing investigation into Ms Tighe’s disappearance as “totally inadequate”.

The long serving TD, who is friends of the Tighe family, told the Dáil how the Tighe family had been left distraught by her disappearance.

“Very understandably, Jean’s loving family are distraught and have been at their wits’ end over her disappearance. Those concerns are shared by their many friends in the community in Cavan and neighbouring areas,” Mr Smith said.

“To put it mildly, the investigation into Jean’s disappearance has been totally inadequate. It is simply just not good enough.”