Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I offer my condolences to the family of the late Shane O'Farrell. I understand that he was an exceptional young man and his death nine years ago, at the age of 23, was a terrible tragedy.

I note that the Deputy has raised this case a number of times and that she raised it previously with me in the Chamber. As she will be aware, a retired judge, Gerard Haughton, is currently conducting a scoping exercise into the tragic circumstances surrounding Shane's death. The judge furnished an interim report to my predecessor, Deputy Flanagan, last November and, following consultation between the judge with Shane's family and the Attorney General, the interim report was published on 17 December 2019. In his interim report, the judge stated that he would not limit Shane's family in their submissions to him or the nature and extent of the documentation that they wished to furnish to him in the scoping exercise.

My Department maintains regular contact with the judge and he has assured us that he will ask for any assistance that is required to complete the final report and we will of course make it available to him. However, given the Covid-19 restrictions, the judge recently informed my Department that it is likely to be mid-December before he will be in a position to conclude the scoping exercise. I assure the Deputy that it is of course open to the judge to make any recommendations that he sees fit in his final report and this includes the establishment of any form of statutory or non-statutory inquiry. He is not precluded in any way from proposing that. I hope Deputy Bríd Smith will appreciate that it is only appropriate that I would await the recommendations of the final report of the scoping exercise before making any decision on further inquiries into this matter. I also hope that we will have the report before the end of the year.

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