Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

Like everyone, I was absolutely shocked to hear of the tragic circumstances of Shane O'Farrell's death on 2 August 2011. I am always saddened to hear of deaths on our roads, of which there are still too many, but as a cyclist, a law student, a UCD graduate and someone who was around Shane's age at the time, his death in particular hit home with me. I recently had the privilege of meeting with Shane's mother, Lucia, and his sister Hannah. The meeting stuck with me for a number of reasons, including the extraordinary background to Shane's death and the subsequent miscarriage of justice in how the investigation of that death was handled by the State. It was a miscarriage of justice and we need to be clear about that. However, what stuck with me the most was the dogged determination of Shane's family to rectify that miscarriage and to make sure that justice was realised for both Shane and the O'Farrell family. The O'Farrells have been wronged by the State and by our justice system. Shane has been wronged.

We in the Labour Party welcome this State apology to the O'Farrells today. The Minister supported the O'Farrell family from the Opposition benches, as did the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, who is also sitting here today, and politicians from many parties, including my own, and I commend him on taking this important step and beginning to make amends for what happened. A State apology is a rare thing. The State does not easily apologise for anything. Apologies must almost always be dragged out of it following significant campaigning, heartache and often adversarial litigation on the part of those affected. An apology is certainly warranted in this instance. We would not be here were it not for the resolute determination and ceaseless campaigning of Lucia and all of the O'Farrell family to achieve justice for Shane and for their family, who first had to live with the grief of Shane's killing and then with the gaslighting from those the family were relying on for straight answers and justice. The O'Farrells should all be incredibly proud that they have got us to this point. I hope today's apology will provide them with some degree of closure.

During the State apology to the Stardust families, the Tánaiste, who is with us today, said:

In such shattering circumstances, the ... expectation must surely be that the State comes to the aid of its citizens and supports them in the terrible aftermath. Instead, it is to our great and eternal shame that, far from the warm embrace of a caring State, the Stardust families experienced a cold shoulder, a deaf ear and ... generations of struggle for truth and justice. It is to our great shame that State processes heaped misery upon tragedy for the Stardust families.

Those same words could be copied and pasted with respect to what our State has put the O'Farrell family through. They too have had misery heaped upon tragedy. The report of the scoping exercise carried out by Judge Haughton to determine whether further enquiry was needed in this case adopted a narrative of victim blaming, which I know has been a source of considerable pain for the O'Farrell family. To suggest that Shane was somehow at fault for his own death was plainly wrong and the supposed evidence on which that suggestion was made does not stack up. The first three pages of the Haughton report are dedicated to criticising Shane and intimating that his own actions had a hand in what happened to him. I cannot begin to imagine how the O'Farrell family must have felt when they first read it. There is one person directly at fault for Shane's death and that is the driver of the vehicle that hit him, Zigimantas Gridziuska. However, the justice system that allowed that man to be out on the streets in the first place is also in the dock today. To have their son and brother blamed for his own death and the various processes they have had to go through just to get some answers have been an exercise of repeated revictimisation for the O'Farrell family. That happened at the hands of this State.

I do not want to presume how the O'Farrells are feeling about what the Minister has said during this apology. I understand that this will be their first time hearing the actual substance of the apology. This apology of wrongdoing by the State may be enough for them. It may provide the closure they need and deserve. I sincerely hope that is the case and that they can finally rest after a long and arduous fight for justice for Shane. I will talk to the family following these statements and whether they feel they need to continue this fight or they feel this issue can finally be put to bed, we will make that argument. The O'Farrell family's wishes must take precedence.

Notwithstanding this apology and how the O'Farrells feel about it, questions still remain for the State regarding how this case was handled and these must be answered to ensure this can never happen again. For example, there are questions as to how a document as flawed as the Haughton report was so easily accepted by the State and our justice system and used to quash calls for a public inquiry. The report was necessarily incomplete given the nature of the terms of reference and the documentation given to the judge. It could never have been anything other than incomplete and inadequate. It is extremely concerning that certain judges were not informed of Gridziuska's breaches of bail by the Garda or the prosecution. That is an incredible error and it was compounded by the fact that two gardaí who were disciplined in respect of the handling of this matter successfully challenged their disciplinary proceedings on the basis that they were not properly trained on the PULSE system and not legally required to check the court outcomes and, as such, not actually required to bring previous outcomes to the attention of the court. We need to know that this cannot and will not happen again. The loopholes that allowed this to happen need to be closed immediately whether through legislation, some other mechanism or simple training for gardaí. This is one of a series of significant failures that resulted in years of pain and struggle for justice for the O'Farrell family.

Something went seriously wrong here and the State and our justice system need to answer the questions this case raises about their processes and how to ensure this never happens again. No family should have to go through what the O'Farrells have had to go through. To lose a son and a brother and then, in the Tánaiste's words, to have misery heaped upon tragedy is not acceptable. We cannot allow it to happen again. This apology cannot be used to whitewash the serious failings at the heart of this matter.

See this speech in context