Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I acknowledge the O'Farrell family, who are in our Distinguished Visitors Gallery. I acknowledge Lucia and Jim, Shane's parents, and Gemma, Pia, Aimee and Hannah, his beloved sisters. I first met Lucia and Jim many years ago here in Leinster House. I was serving as the Sinn Féin justice spokesperson at the time. I will never forget that meeting. Lucia had a framed picture of Shane. She took me through what had happened. At that point, it had happened in recent times. There was the grief of this family, who are a role model Irish family. They are hard-working and decent and they have done everything that you are supposed to do. I could see the profound injustice that was burning in Lucia and Jim. They have continued to inspire all of us who have met them over the years. My wife, Sinéad, worked with Mary Lou McDonald and, because of that, she worked with Lucia. As a mother, she really identified with the pain.

Sinéad, like many Irish people, sends her deep love to Shane's family for everything they endured. They were failed twice. They lost their beloved son and brother due to an appalling litany of failure in our criminal justice system. It was wilful neglect and absolutely appalling beyond belief. They have to get up every day without him in their lives but then they were failed again because every door they knocked on was slammed. The answer to every question they asked was held back, delayed or procrastinated upon.

I thank the Minister for his statement today. It was heartfelt and comprehensive, as it needed to be, but any citizen who looks at the scale of the failure will see it is beyond belief, in respect of our bail system. The Minister is aware of the suspicion that this criminal, this evil man was a Garda informer and was protected by the very people who are supposed to protect us. This family was grievously failed.

I am pleased there will be a monument to Shane's memory in the scholarship to UCD and I welcome that there will be legislative change, but the Irish people owe a debt of gratitude to the O'Farrell family. They have shone a light on the utter failures of our criminal justice system, how the parts do not talk to one another and how it sometimes protects evil people and fails us all. The greatest memorial to their beloved son and brother will be that laws will change and people will be inspired to fight the system against all odds. No matter how long it takes, they will get justice because justice and righteousness are on their side.

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