Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Minister will agree that any parent’s greatest fear is their child will go out some day and not come home. For Lucia and Jim O’Farrell, this dreadful fear became their reality on the fateful day Shane was killed. I want to sincerely acknowledge Shane’s family here in the Gallery. Incredibly, the scoping exercise sought to blame Shane for his own death and wipes the hands of An Garda Síochána, the courts and even the man who killed him of any wrong doing. That is unacceptable. That was not the point of this exercise. Serious questions must be asked of the direct role played by the Department of Justice in this supposedly independent process. We will also agree that nobody should be above the law, not the Minister, nor me, nor a garda, nor a judge nor an informer. The family and the State require answers to serious questions. It is a matter of public interest. The only way we will have the truth on this conspiracy to protect an individual who was given bail on 37 separate occasions before he killed this young man is a full public independent inquiry. A litany of answers is needed by this family to the questions that keep them awake at night. But it is not just for this family but for the administration of justice in our State, confidence in our Judiciary and confidence in An Garda Síochána. This tragic loss of life should never have happened. It will forever leave a gap in this family that no one can fill and no one else can feel. It will go some way to attempt to give the answers and justice the O’Farrell family needs because at this point nothing else will do.

Can we also agree that it is such a pity that this family has to retraumatise itself each and every time it has to speak out? Please do not let them leave here today with just a failed scoping exercise. Please respond to the circumstances that they should never have faced and attempt to undo the wrong by at least committing to a full, public, independent inquiry. The responsibility for this lies in the Government’s hands.

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