Speech by Tánaiste Simon Harris: Apology to Shane O’Farrell and his family - Statements, Dáil Éireann

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Ceann Comhairle,

I want to begin by welcoming members of the O’Farrell family to the House this afternoon.

I’m conscious that for Shane’s parents Lucia and Jim, and for his four sisters Hannah, Gemma, Aimee and Pia – this is very far from your first time in this House or in the environs of Government Buildings.

I had the honour of meeting you when I served as Justice Minister, Lucia, and was in awe of the might of a mother fighting for justice for her son.

I saw firsthand your fortitude and determination to secure justice for Shane, your only son, who was so cruelly taken from you.

When I met you, we sat for five hours remembering Shane. The pain was as raw as the day you lost him.

Throughout that meeting, you brought to life a kind, happy, generous young man. A determined young man. A sports lover. An exceptionally bright individual.

A son. A brother. A friend.

We can all attest to the strength of the Irish Mother. Shane was blessed with a very special mother, who has championed his cause day in and day out for 14 long years.

Lucia, you have ensured his name is heard and echoed in the corridors of power.

The commitment you have shown to this campaign is a tribute to a mother's love for her son, but also to the pursuit of justice and truth.

I hope today in some small way can start to heal the wounds left by Shane’s untimely death.

I know the agonising pain of Shane’s tragic death near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, on August 2nd 2011, has since been borne alongside your long campaign against the injustice of his killing.

It is beyond regrettable that it is so often the case that the interactions of victims and their families with the State are so prolonged as to feel adversarial and I know that this has exacerbated your already unimaginable pain.

I know Shane’s death plunged your tight-knit community in County Monaghan into the depths of grief and numbness.

A community that lost one of their own; a 23-year-old young law graduate with his entire life, a bright future, all ahead of him.

The harrowing events of that day in August 2011 were just the beginning of a living nightmare for the O’Farrell family.

Nothing we can do or say will take away the pain of his loss, but I hope the steps we are taking today will help to bring some sense of closure and comfort.

Today, Ceann Comhairle, we acknowledge failures in the Courts Service and the Criminal Justice System that exposed Shane to danger on the fateful day of his tragic death.

My colleague, the Minister for Justice, will formally deliver a public apology to the O’Farrell family very shortly on behalf of the government.

The government made a number of decisions on the recommendation of the Minister and arising from the campaign of the O’Farrell family that we hope will bring about meaningful change.

Minister O’Callaghan will outline these decisions in more detail but they are rightly intended to directly respond to the failings we are acknowledging today.

I would like to commend the Minister for bringing forward these measures and for proposing these Dáil statements.

Ceann Comhairle, I say again that nothing we can do or say can ever make up for the grief and sorrow of the O’Farrell family, and the anguish of their long campaign for justice, but I hope that the apology today and the actions we are taking alongside it may be some balm for the pain you bear.

I hope you will take some comfort in having translated that pain into changes that should protect others in the way that Shane should have been protected, so that other families do not endure the suffering that you have.

Shane’s memory lives on in this and in so many ways thanks to your enduring love and inexhaustible resilience.

Thank you for being here again today for the government to deliver this statement.

As Tánaiste, I fully endorse and support the apology which will now be given by the Minister for Justice.

Go raibh maith agaibh.