Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue, which I know a lot of people across the country are talking about today. I am afraid I did not have a chance to watch the programme myself as I was travelling back from a meeting last night and did not get into the country until quite late. However, a lot of people have spoken to me about it through the course of the morning, and they were deeply impacted by the story they heard and by the bravery of Clodagh's mother and sister, who shared their story with the nation last night.

I do, of course, know a little about the case and the murders of Clodagh, Liam, Niall and Ryan. It was a heartbreaking and horrific tragedy for the family and for the wider community in Virginia, County Cavan. What happened must be beyond anyone's worst nightmares and it was truly a terrible crime. I am sure the condolences of the entire House go to the family and to the wider community. We cannot imagine their pain and I know there is very little we can say or do here to ease or erase their grief and suffering. Understandably, in such circumstances, where a suicide or a murder-suicide occurs, people want to know why it happened and it is often not possible to answer that question. They often want to know if there is anything they could have done to prevent it or if there were any signs that they could have identified. Often, the truth is that there is not. That makes the pain even harder.

As the Deputy acknowledged, family annihilation and familicide is rare, thankfully, but it does happen and perhaps more frequently that it did in the past. We can, therefore, learn lessons. In terms of what we can do, we think it is a combination of changing laws - in fact, we have already changed laws - reform of the Garda and how gardaí deal with such cases, reform of the law and maybe some specific actions around this case. The Domestic Violence Act, which was passed in 2018, made coercive control an offence in this State for the first time. That was an important step forward, which was led by Government, with the support of the Oireachtas. Gardaí are trying to improve the way they deal with such serious cases through the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, GNPSB, which is responsible for ensuring that front-line gardaí have a solid understanding of coercive control and this new legislation. That has been going live in all Garda divisions since the first week in January. Ten have been established across nine divisions and it will go to the other 19 in 2019. In addition, the family have asked us to review the Succession Act 1965 in regard to inheritance, on which Deputy Jim O'Callaghan has done some work, and the Coroners Act 1962 in regard to burials.

In terms of taking this forward and seeing what we can do to answer some of the questions, and perhaps to learn from what has happened, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, will be happy to receive a submission from the family with their suggestions, and perhaps we will take it from there.

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