James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)

I want to acknowledge Jim, Lucia, Aimee, Pia, Hannah and Gemma who are in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. I acknowledge the apology that has been issued on behalf of the State by the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Justice.

I first spoke with Lucia almost 12 years ago on the telephone. We have heard many people speak of the engagement Lucia has had in this building. I was then somebody who had recently qualified as a barrister, not having practised and with a limited knowledge of the criminal justice system in truth. I spoke to a woman who was deep in grief for her son. In every conversation I had with her, she identified to me the number of challenges she witnessed throughout the process of dealing with the grief of the death of her son and how the criminal justice system pursued his assailant. In each of those conversations, Lucia brought this person, Shane, whom I had never met, to life. I think I spoke to her four, five or six times on the phone. Subsequently, I was sent a series of documentation, which I reviewed like many others in the House did.

Only a couple of weeks ago, some 12 years later and now a Member of Dáil Éireann, I met Lucia again. What struck me when I met Lucia was how, for her, time was still so frozen. The grief she expressed to me on the telephone 12 years ago was still ever present, and yet the adoration and love for her son was precisely the same. The memories of him were the same. He was as much alive in her memories then as he was 12 years ago when she spoke to me on the phone. One of the ways in which we can pay tribute to our media in some respects is that, very often when incidents of crime occur, we see lots of pictures of the perpetrators of those crimes, but in Shane's case, we have seen his beautiful smiling face throughout this period in which justice has been sought for him.

It is impossible for me to even consider, contemplate or even remotely understand the loss that every member of the O'Farrell family has felt over the years since Shane's passing. I now have my own kids; I did not then. I now have my own family. I cannot possibly imagine how I would feel to lose a child and then, having lost that child, not receive justice for the manner in which he died. If there is any case that demonstrates to the Irish public how cold the State can sometimes be to victims, it is the case of Shane O'Farrell. It is simply an extraordinary stain on the State that, once again, a family has had to fight for years after years after years to receive justice. He did not receive justice in the criminal justice system. As the Minister for Justice has acknowledged today, he shares the opinion of the O'Farrell family that had the criminal justice system appropriately dealt with the person who killed him, Shane might be alive here today. That must be an appalling pill to swallow, and something that absolutely needed to be acknowledged. I praise the Minister for doing so.

Not only is it the case that the justice system failed the O'Farrell family in advance of losing their son, but the system has failed the family in every month and year since. When I listened to Deputy John McGuinness speak earlier, whom I know has been to the forefront of raising these issues in the Dáil, it made me as a new Member of the Dáil ponder just how important the privilege of the Dáil is and how we use Dáil privilege. In truth, if Lucia had not come into the Dáil or Seanad as many times as she did, the O'Farrells may have been a family who never got justice. They may have been given the runaround in the courts system. They may have never got this apology. That is the reality. It is the sad reality that there are almost certainly families throughout the country who could not endure what the O'Farrell family have put themselves through to arrive at a day like today but, my God, are they a credit to Shane. It is unquantifiable to recognise, see and feel a family who have worked so hard to keep Shane's memory alive. It is an appropriate and proportionate announcement that the Minister has made in respect of memorialising Shane as a law graduate in UCD. In any conversation I had with Lucia, she reminded me of how far he could have gone. I think of this as someone who has gone through that career and worked as a barrister for ten years, and what contribution Shane could have made to the legal system. He is making a contribution to the legal system by virtue of the scholarship the Minister has announced today. Forevermore, if you are a student of law in UCD, you will know this story. You will hear this story.

I hope this story will contribute not just to the statutory changes the Minister has outlined today, which I welcome, but to a further rethink of how we treat victims in the State. It is the case that laws have changed in the State since Lucia and the O'Farrell family set out on their quest for justice. We have a victims of crime Act now, which essentially transposes EU victims of crime legislation into Irish legislation. It provides victims with greater involvement in the criminal justice process. However, it is still the case that victims feel they do not get the justice they deserve and they are forced to bring their case to the courts. This is something we need to consider at the outset, in the same way as we are doing in many other areas of the State, particularly when it comes to clinical negligence.

Where there are people who are wronged by the State in the criminal justice system and where there are victims who are wronged by the criminal justice system, and they are forced to use the only means by which they think they can vindicate the rights of the victim through bringing their action to court, it is incumbent on the State to review and consider how we can respond to that case in the most expeditious, fair and proportionate way. This is so that we do not do what the State did to the O'Farrell family, retraumatising them for more than a decade by not providing the type of justice that Shane richly deserved.

I have nothing further to say other than to wish every member of the O'Farrell family the absolute best. Well done to all of you for bringing Shane's memory alive today. I hope this apology does go some way to giving them some measure of justice, which they all so much deserve.

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