Mr. Noel Byrne:

I am a member of AdVIC and I want to highlight my brother's case and where his convicted murderer stands. I am the brother of Paul Byrne who was murdered in September 2009. Paul was murdered by his estranged spouse Tanya Doyle. Paul was a project manager with a well-known company that carries several contracts for major companies throughout Ireland. Paul's income was in excess of €100,000 at the time of his death.

I will go through the background and how Paul and Tanya split up. Paul had been stabbed in the back some years before his death. This stabbing punctured his lung and was 1 cm short of puncturing his heart. He was in hospital for about two months and on leaving hospital, he and Tanya went through a small stage before their separation. Due to this separation Paul supported and provided money for an apartment and other financial implications in respect of their separation. There was no legal responsibility for him to do that, but Paul lived up to his financial obligations as her husband.

Shortly afterwards, Tanya decided to go away. I believe she went to Portugal. She stayed in Portugal and Spain for a number of years. Tanya and Paul remained in contact. She said she had some difficulties there and Paul paid for her flight back to Ireland. She then resumed living in the house with Paul. They lived there together but had separate bedrooms.

They were in the process of going through a legal separation. They had come to an agreement on the terms of that. That settlement was due to be signed on the Tuesday after his death. On the weekend of his death there was a 21st birthday party for our niece. We live just outside Thurles. We had made arrangements to call for Paul on the way over. The intention was that we would go out for a drink with my father and the three of us would chat for the evening.

We were running a little late and hit the M50 at approximately 7.10 p.m. We tried to call Paul to say we were heading to my sister's house and would meet him later. However, his phone was engaged. Due to the previous incident with Paul's stabbing, I decided, especially with Tanya living in the same house, that I needed to call him every day to ensure he was okay. This fizzled back to ringing him mainly over the weekends and into Tuesday. Because of his business, he would normally be away at some company around the country from Tuesday to Thursday night. Such was the intensity of our fears that at one point he did not answer the phone and I was so worried that I decided to ring Tallaght Garda station to get them to drop around to the house. We had second thoughts when I discussed it with my wife and sister. When he rang me back in the morning, he thought it was quite funny that I thought I needed to take that step.

Paul's murder was pre-planned in the days running up to that Friday. A carving knife was bought in a local store and a pre-arranged plan to kill him was set in action. Paul called for a taxi at approximately 7 p.m. on the evening of his death to bring him out to my Dad's house. A short while later, Tanya Doyle called the taxi company and cancelled the taxi. The coroner's report as read out in court recorded that Paul was stabbed over 68 times and five of his vital organs were punctured. Any one of those injuries would have caused his death. He dialled 999 and the eight and three quarter minutes of the remainder of his life was recorded. I will not go through the conversation recorded on the 999 call as Paul died. Suffice it to say, the number of defensive wounds were critical. There was one slash wound on his arm that peeled the skin back four inches. At one point, he asked Tanya to call an ambulance. She had stabbed him in the heart. It is my belief that the last stab wound happened as he lay on the bed and the carving knife pierced one side of his neck and came out the other. It took just under nine minutes for Paul to bleed to death.

Tanya was arrested at the house. She was washing herself down and changing her clothes and was just about to leave when the police turned up. Under questioning that evening, Tanya admitted to gardaí that she had killed Paul for the house and his money. She told gardaí that there was no point in just stabbing him. Our understanding of that was in reference to what happened before. That would mean she would not get enough. Tanya was convicted of murder in 2013. If we look at the wider picture in relation to Paul's death, after the conviction took place and the estate went through probate, we received legal advice which recommended that, as a settlement, we needed to purchase her portion of the tenancy of the house. Otherwise, she would be entitled to a key and to return there following her release from prison. On contacting immediately after his death the financial controller in the company Paul where worked, we were given an undertaking that no moneys would be paid to Ms Doyle. The financial controller changed a number of years afterwards. After the trial, we contacted the financial controller, who was chair of the pension fund, and were told there was an obligation on them to pay her the spouse's portion of the benefit from the pension. All other portions of the pension were paid to the family. The amount of the pension was nearly €23,000 a year and this is why Paul was murdered. It was for the house and this money. She stated that categorically to the police. If she lived the average life expectancy of a woman, it would amount over that period to approximately €1 million. We were in contact with the insurance company that held the pension. I ask the committee to note that I make no reference to the names of either his company or the insurance company. I think that would be improper. The insurance company said it had an obligation to pay this money. We cannot understand how an insurance company would pay a convicted murderer who admitted killing a person for that money. We cannot understand that person receiving any benefit whatsoever. In 2016, the trustees of the pension sent us an email stating they had arrived at an agreement that no moneys would be paid.

It is a shame to think that this September, it will be ten years since 2009 and that a person who committed murder for gain is still in a position to receive that gain. It is perhaps another issue but Tanya Doyle was up for parole in 2017 and will be up for parole again in June 2019. As a family, we have been consistently struggling since 2009 with the events of this murder. As a family, my wife, two sisters, their partners and I cannot understand how a person who admitted murdering somebody can benefit from that crime. It is unbelievable that the Members of the Oireachtas have not done something sooner.

A Women’s Aid Femicide Watch reportfound that on average, ten women are killed each year by their partner or spouse. That is more than 100 people who have been murdered by their partner or spouse since 2009. The families probably find themselves in similar situations to us and have to battle through with the same legal jargon and issues surrounding the deaths. I find this very distressing.

Since the first report came out in 1996, the average is ten deaths per year. Between 1996 and the end of this year, that will come to more than 225 deaths. The families of those victims will have gone through a similar situation to us and nothing has been done about it yet.

I appreciate members' time this morning. I apologise for going way over time. I had talked through this presentation and was closer to my timing then but I appreciate the committee's tolerance and patience this morning.