Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the families. It is important they are here this evening to witness the Bill. I commend my colleague, Senator Lynn Boylan, not just on this evening but on her tireless work over many years on this issue in support of the families. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news about the Stardust. I was getting up for school at home in Westmeath. I was 15 years of age. My father told me something awful had happened in Dublin. I remember the look of horror on his face as he listened to the radio that morning. It was the horror any parent or human being would feel when hearing about the unspeakable events unfolding. It was and remains the biggest disaster the State has ever known.

I do not think anyone could have foreseen how those 48 victims and their families would have been blackguarded, ignored, disrespected and treated with contempt by the State for more than four decades. I salute their courage, resilience and fortitude in never giving up on their quest for truth and justice. At the heart of their struggle is that small word we rarely hear mentioned in the Chamber, which is "class". Does anyone seriously think that if these events happened to residents from leafy middle-class suburbs in south Dublin they would have been left waiting more than 40 years for justice? As the victims were from the working-class community of Artane, they were effectively disregarded by the State. Worse than this, they were stigmatised by the 1981 tribunal with the deeply flawed conclusion that the fire had been started deliberately. This conclusion was subsequently overturned 28 years later but the damage had been done. As one Stardust relative said, calling those children arsonists was the worst thing they ever did.

The obstacles the State has put in the way of these relatives has been detailed by my colleague, Senator Boylan. It took a sit-in in Government Buildings to force an independent review. After a nationwide campaign of 48,000 signed postcards, they won the right to fresh inquests for their loved ones. Then followed the scandalous Government stance on legal aid for the families, an issue only resolved after the threat of a judicial review based on the European Convention on Human Rights. Respectfully I say to my colleague Senator Gallagher, when he says families have been provided with all of the necessary supports it was only after one hell of a battle on the part of the families.

I will quote survivor Antoinette Keegan. She said "we want all the obstacles that’s in our way to be removed so when the inquest is ready to start, that we’re up and running and ready to go." She also said, "There are too many undue delays in the whole lot of this and it is time now that they all stop" and that "The inquest will not be proceeding if we don’t have a jury." I do not think anyone here can disagree with one word of this. The idea the inquest would not have a jury is entirely unacceptable because judge-led investigations have failed these people.

The ball is very much in the Minister's court. She needs not only to not oppose the Bill but she needs to embrace it. She needs to give a commitment here to fast-track it. I acknowledge this is a request Senator Kyne made in his speech also. This is so it can become law in good time for the inquest. The Government needs to do better. The response cited by the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, earlier that there is no legal requirement for a jury-led inquest is really insulting to the people behind me. We have to do better. The Minister has an opportunity to do better this evening. How could she countenance the possibility of this inquest not having a jury? Does she not have a solemn duty, given what these families have been through, to ensure there is a jury, that it is selected openly and in a transparent manner and that it is adequately compensated? Is this not actually the least the Minister can do?

The most disappointing aspect of this, and I hope it will not happen and I am genuinely looking forward, as are all colleagues in the Chamber, to the Minister's response, would be to have this debate and then for nothing to happen as a response. There is a Bill here. It is a simple Bill. If there are changes required, let us make those changes. We know how quickly legislation can be passed through these two Houses. We saw it during Covid. We know that ten years ago, legislation was passed for the banks in just 48 hours. These people have been waiting 41 years. Here is an opportunity for the Minister, as a reforming Minister, to do the right thing this evening and endorse the Bill, not just not oppose it but say she will endorse it and ensure there will be a jury, that it will be fairly selected and ensure the inquests go ahead as, I hope, each and every one of us want them to. I look forward to the words of the Minister. Please take this opportunity and embrace the Bill and support the families sitting behind us.