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THE GOVERNMENT IS set to announce a ‘scoping exercise’ to examine how best to deal with the serious issues raised by victims of former doctor and child sex abuser Michael Shine.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is expected to bring a memorandum to Cabinet on Wednesday for sign-off of what is understood to be a precursor to a statutory inquiry.
The proposal will allow for a 16-week scoping exercise by a facilitator who will be appointed before Christmas.
As reported by The Journal earlier this year, the government wants this process to be ‘bespoke’ to the specific Shine case rather than follow a blueprint of previous commissions of investigation.
The facilitator will be asked by the minister to request and examine documentation from state departments and agencies, as well as testimony from victims.
Public inquiries often run into difficulties trying to obtain certain evidence so the appointee will also be asked to consider what powers an inquiry would need to overcome such barriers.
The facilitator will be directed to recommend to the minister and government what the most appropriate mechanism is for addressing the concerns raised by Shine’s victims.
A group campaigning for a public inquiry on behalf of more than 390 sexual abuse victims met with MacNeill today and welcomed the plans tonight.
Last year The Journal published interviews with a group of victims who chose to waive their anonymity for the first time in a bid to push for a full investigation into how the sustained and prolific abuse was not stopped earlier.
One of those men, Cianan Murray, attended the meeting at the Department of Health today alongside representatives of the advocacy organisation Dignity4Patients, and said he wants ‘everything’ about the case out in the open.
Speaking to The Journal about the outcome he said, “This for me will be my justice. It’s the only justice I am ever going to get. Hopefully everything comes out, the cover-ups, the whole lot.”
Mr Murray, from Duleek, County Meath, was abused by the former surgeon in 1972.
He says he was 16 years old when he was sexually assaulted by Shine at his private practice on Drogheda’s Fair Street.
Mr Murray made a statement to gardaí in 1995 but Shine was never charged.
In spite of almost 400 men making allegations against Shine, only nine of these men have seen successful prosecutions in the criminal courts.
In November 2017, guilty verdicts for Shine on three counts of assaulting two teenage patients on dates between 1974 and 1976 were handed down by a jury. However, he was granted bail pending an appeal against the conviction.
Shine was eventually jailed for four years in 2019 following a separate case for abusing seven boys in his care over a period of three decades and was released in February 2022. He now lives in Dublin.
In June, a proposal for how a public inquiry would operate was drafted, in consultation with the victims, by Dignity4Patients, solicitor Diarmuid Brecknell of Phoenix Law and DCU associate professor of law Dr James Gallen.
It included a timeline documenting the history of alleged abuse, with the earliest known accusation against Shine reported to hospital authorities as far back as 1977.
Brecknell said tonight: “We support the scoping exercise to make sure a public inquiry is built on strong foundations and can go the distance.
“Victim involvement by the facilitator is the key aspect of their job.
“They must bring the victims along with them and serve them first. It should ensure that victims can finally get the answers to the questions they have been asking for over 60 years.
“There should be no stone left unturned and no ‘what-ifs’ at the end of this process. A thorough scoping procedure which recommends a full statutory public inquiry, will do that.”
To date, more than 200 victims have settled civil claims against the Medical Missionaries of Mary, which ran the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, at the time of the offending.
Shine is also facing more than 20 new damages suits in the High Court after a series of cases were lodged last month.
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