Meeting with Minister on Michael Shine inquiry "very positive", says patients group
The CEO of the Dignity for Patients4Patients organisation, Adrienne Reilly, has described a meeting with the Minister for Health to discuss a scoping inquiry into consultant Michael Shine as “very positive”.
Ms Reilly told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the organisation had been invited to meet with the Minister and officials to discuss the terms of reference for the scoping inquiry.
It is understood that a memorandum is to be brought to the Cabinet by the Minister for Health on Tuesday, which would include provisions for the scoping inquiry to run for 16 weeks, with a senior counsel to be appointed before Christmas. This could ultimately lead to a full statutory inquiry, for which victims' groups have been campaigning.
Michael Shine worked as a consultant at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, and was later found guilty of sexual assaults on nine boys.
Following the meeting, the Dignity4Patients organisation consulted with some of the 390 victims they represent.
Ms Reilly said that a number of issues with regard to information gathering and a “victim-centred arrangement” would form the foundation for “some type of statutory inquiry.”
“Judging from the interactions we've had with the minister throughout the course of this year and in the meeting yesterday, we are entering all of this in very good faith," she said.
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“It was a very lovely and engaging and receptive meeting yesterday where we could actually discuss real things that were brought to the table on behalf of the victims, like we've always said, to look at the institutions that failed them, to look at how the abuse was allowed to go on for so long, and to address some of the issues like the Smith Review, why that remains locked up and can we get to look at some of the issues around that review."
Ms Reilly said there needed to be an in-depth review of what happened from 1977, when the first case of abuse against Michael Shine was reported.
“We need to look at all the institutions that had legal obligations to actually protect children from sexual abuse and rape and sexual assault and where did they fail, what are the learnings from that? We also need for the victims to have a voice and for them to be believed, and that is the main thing, that they want people to know what happened to them, who failed them and who should have protected them."
All the details of a “bespoke inquiry” can be negotiated, she added. “These things are all negotiable around the idea of a bespoke inquiry, and nobody has any interest in this running on for years .”
