I wish to raise the case of Shane O’Farrell. This December will be the tenth Christmas for the O’Farrell family without Shane. As the Taoiseach will know, the circumstances that led to his death have been very well voiced in the Dáil and Seanad in recent years. In 2018, the Dáil voted in favour of the immediate establishment of a public inquiry into the death of Shane O’Farrell and this was followed by a unanimous vote to the same effect in the Seanad in early 2019.

Instead of acting on the instruction of both Houses, the previous Fine Gael-led Government announced the establishment of a scoping exercise. Nearly two years have passed, and completion of the final report has been delayed for the fifth time. When announcing the establishment of the scoping exercise the former Minister for Justice and Equality committed to the completion of an interim report within eight weeks on the commencement of the exercise. The family noted that the Guerin report took weeks to complete.

We are coming up to Christmas. The efforts of the O’Farrell family have been nothing short of heroic. They have the majority support of the Dáil and the Seanad. We need a public inquiry into the death of this young man. We all support that. When the Taoiseach was on the Opposition benches, he led the charge in calling for that inquiry. When will we see the outcome of that scoping exercise and when will we have that public inquiry?