Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

To Lucia, Jim and the O'Farrell family sitting with us in the Gallery today, I offer my condolences and express my admiration of their dignity in grief, which has been extraordinary. Their courage is incalculable. They should never have had to fight this hard or for this long just to be heard. They should never have had to carry that burden of proof. Their campaign has been an act of love and courage. This House and this State owes them infinitely more than words. Their son, Shane O'Farrell, was 23 years old. He was a son, a brother, a law graduate and a cyclist and had a life full of promise that was ended in seconds. His life was taken by a man who should never have been on that road, who should never have been at liberty and who was protected by a system that repeatedly looked the other way. Today's apology is long overdue, but if it is to mean anything, it must force us to confront a deeper truth, that Shane's death was not a one-off failure, but the result of a justice system that is broken at both ends. The man responsible for Shane's death had more than 40 convictions North and South of our Border. He was on bail for multiple offences and had breached suspended sentences. Judges were not giving the correct information. The Garda did not act at the exact moment when it mattered, and court orders were left unenforced. A young man with every reason to believe in the law and who dedicated his short academic life to the law was killed by the State's failure to uphold that law. What is worse, after losing their son, the O'Farrell family were forced to become investigators, legal researchers and campaigners simply for the basic truth, for accountability and for the dignity of their son's life to be recognised by the very institutions that failed him. While we rightly offer an apology today, let us all be clear that an apology is not justice, accountability or reform. An apology without a commitment to atone is no apology at all.

I welcome the proposed changes to the law outlined by the Minister today, but gaps still remain. When the system does incarcerate people, it does so in overcrowded, under-resourced institutions. People go in with anger in their hearts from addiction and trauma and they come out more isolated, more hardened and more entrenched. Our recidivism rates prove that and the dangers to the communities do not reduce. This is a system that is broken at both ends. We have a system that does not detain those who are very clearly dangerous and offers no real rehabilitation to those who are sent back into the communities. It is a system where families such as the O'Farrells wait 13 years for truth while trying to piece together how so many warnings were ignored, while others, victims of assault, robbery and intimidation see no follow-up, no Garda presence or resolution. We cannot keep pretending that justice is working when everyone, including victims, families, front-line gardaí and even those inside the system, knows it is not. Justice should protect people. It should correct wrongs and restore trust. Right now, it is failing on all of those fronts.

If today's apology is to carry weight, let it be a turning point, not just for Shane's family, who has had to fight so hard, but for the kind of justice we deliver in this State, who we hold accountable, who we should clearly see as a threat, who we help recover and who we keep letting fall through the cracks. Shane deserved better. His family deserved infinitely more, and I hope they find some remote form of solace in today's State apology and in the facts outlined by the Minister.

For the rest of us who need to believe that the system is meant to serve, this must be a reckoning point. It must be the start of a system of justice worthy of that name. We owe it to Shane, who committed his short academic life to the law, to ensure we improve the system in order that this cannot happen again. We owe it to Shane's family to ensure that never again should a family who have so tragically lost a child and a brother have to align their grief with the tenacity to go in search of the truth and fight so hard just to receive the truth of your loss.

The very antithesis of justice is the retraumatising of victims and their families. All of us are sorry you have had to fight this hard. I hope today brings some closure. If it does not, I hope the family knows there will be voices across this Chamber ready to carry their call, to answer that call and to demand more if they so wish it. I was taken by the words of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle that all of us need to find our courage when it matters and to listen, to hear better and to respond better. I am reminded of the words of previous apologies in this Chamber and the campaigners who fought for them. I refer, for example, to Christine Buckley, who use the simple phrase: "I believe you before you open your mouth". That should be the basis of our institutions, and never again should the grief of families have to be prolonged in search of truth. I am sorry. We are all sorry, and we are here should you need us again.

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