Erin McGreehan demands justice for Michael Shine victims

Thanks very much Minister for being here today and I really welcome the opportunity to speak on this long-awaited and much-needed scoping exercise into the disgusting paedophile Michael Shine who abused his position. He took a depraved advantage out of his perceived respectability and the trust that we usually place in our medical profession to abuse hundreds of patients. And today I want to acknowledge and pay tribute to the courage of those victims and the survivors who have been carrying this burden for decades and who were not only just denied only justice but they were also denied any semblance of support with the pain and the trauma of their abuse. I always get nervous when I speak about these things because they're so deeply personal to so many people and you want to do justice to them and you want to do justice to their trauma every time you come into these houses to speak about them because the truth is that none of us in here really can. The only way that we can and we can push for them is to make sure that we listen to them now Minister. I suppose I have a speech here prepared and prepared but it's, you know, listening to Deputy Nash who has been, you know, to the forefront of this since he became into elected office, it's very rare that all the Loud TDs stand in this place in complete agreement because all of us knew, anyone from County Loud and from our home knew that this was going on. We knew that there was, even me as a child knew about Michael Shine as this verb nearly, not understanding what this was, not understanding what the abuse was, not understanding the consequences of it and the reason why we didn't understand is because they were silenced and because everything was there to protect him, to protect the entity that was the hospital, to protect the authorities, to silence and thank God that we have had representatives like Deputy Nash and other representatives to speak out about this and to represent in these houses and other places that represent those voices, to the whistleblowers, to everyone who against all odds and detrimental to careers spoke out against this absolute, you know, I'm not, I don't know, I can't have the words to speak on in the records of the of the house, very unparliamentary language, just this demon that took abuse of so many people and it's only when you hear and you look in the eyes of these men, of these victims and it's those eyes that I look and I look at the wee pictures of what they look like as they're children and you look at your own children and you think Jesus, that could be my wee boys, it could be my brothers, it could be anyone, it could be any of us and it is really, really important that in this house and minister that government continues to listen to dignity for patients and I echo what other representatives have said here today about supporting and funding and financially supporting dignity for patients because what they have been doing over decades against the, you know, a shoestring to support so many victims, we have hundreds of victims now, we have a statutory inquiry hopefully to come and these victims, you know, trust dignity for patients and we owe them the respect, we owe them, we owe them, we owe dignity for patients so much in this house and we need to respect that. I want to really acknowledge the work of senior councillor Logan Staines and the junior council because the feedback I'm getting is really positive from the survivors and because it's really, really important after years of frustration, of mistrust, that really, really matters and we have to keep that up, we have to keep listening to them because it shows when government actually listens, properly engages, places survivors at the centre of the process rather than at the margins of it. Minister, that's where that's where it at and when Shannon's in the last, in the last, in the last rockers, I worked very closely with an awful lot of victims in the mother and baby homes and they were very much feeling outside, outside every single framework and that's where we failed miserably in relation to those scope and scope and inquiries into, in relation to any, any, we forgot the victim, we can't move on to the next stage after doing so well on this stage and, and, and, and, and, and this, not doing so well on this stage to move on to the next stage and we have to make sure that, you know, all the, the, the, the buildings and the, and the settings that Michael Shaheen abused these children in, they're all taken into consideration, this has to be the first part of a two-stage process, Minister, and, and we, we, we, we also have to make sure that not only that we're doing this for the victims that came forward but also to make sure that this never, ever happens again, that people are, are, that there is safeguarding, that there is a structure, a trusted structure to, to, to, to, to report abuse because we are always, victims are always silenced, Minister, they're always afraid not to be, not, they won't be heard, they won't be believed and if there, there is a process there ingrained as default, they will, they will come forward because we can't, we cannot, we, that has to, that our, we can't change what has happened in the past, we can, we can change what could happen in the future and make, make sure that, that, that the statutory inquiry has a strong patient, a strong patient safety and sexual abuse prevention focus. The lessons are not just simply documented and thought about but they are acted upon. Minister, I guess, I suppose, it would do us all well to listen to the stories, the testimony of victims of Michael Shine because it grounds you in a dark, dark time for this country, it grounds you, it shows you why it's important to listen to victims, it shows you why it's important to have proper safeguarding in our hospitals, it ensures why it is important a victim is believed and trusted and minded. I know a lot of this is just minding people, looking after them and some, some giving them people some dignity. So to finish up, Minister, we owe it to the victims, we owe it to those wee children to see this through fully, properly and without delay. Go raibh maith agat.