Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. The question to be answered here is how long is "shortly". The family have been waiting for more than a year. We expected that the report would be completed in May of last year, but we are now past May 2021. The scoping exercise will decide whether there needs to be a further inquiry. The Houses of the Oireachtas democratically voted on that. On the O'Farrell family's website, there is a long list of Deputies, Senators and MEPs who support a full public inquiry. What happened to Shane O'Farrell was a tragedy. Any Deputy who knows someone who was involved in a serious traffic accident knows the trauma that the family go through. The Minister can imagine how that trauma is multiplied when the person responsible should have been in custody at the time but was at large, and especially given how the case was treated afterwards.

What happened to Shane O'Farrell is one of the major scandals of the State. We are approaching its tenth anniversary. It is in the Minister's constituency that the family reside. It was in her constituency that the incident happened. I appeal to her not to worry about what happens to the scoping inquiry, but to commence the full public inquiry now. That is what needs to happen.

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