2026-05-06

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on statements on Michael Shine, and much more importantly, his victims and survivors. The abuse of trust and attack on the dignity and the person of patients by Michael Shine was a terrible betrayal. I have the deepest sympathy and concern for all the victims. I acknowledge the many people affected, including several I have been fortunate enough to meet. Reports suggest that the total number of those impacted is in the high hundreds and it ranges across a huge age span. These individuals have demonstrated remarkable bravery as they continue their pursuit of justice for the serious wrongdoing they experienced. Those individuals who are not necessarily involved in that campaign and who have suffered in silence have also demonstrated great bravery in continuing their lives in remarkable ways, notwithstanding what has happened to them. Michael Shine, a former surgeon, worked in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda from 1964 until 1995. In March 1995, the CEO of the hospital was made aware of a complaint of abuse against him by the North Eastern Health Board. Michael Shine took leave while the complaint was addressed and subsequently retired in October 1995. By the time of his retirement, he was already the subject of multiple allegations of sexual abuse going back as far as the 1970s. In 1995, the matters in the hospital were the subject of an independent review chaired by Dr. Miriam Hederman O’Brien, which was reported in 1996. The review was established by the board of the hospital and its terms of reference included “to examine and report to the Hospital Management Board on the Hospital’s response to the complaints of sexual abuse made against a consultant, formerly employed by the Hospital”. Dr. Hederman O’Brien’s report set out the chronology of events at the hospital, and recommendations on the prevention of sexual abuse and on procedures for handling complaints. Following the recommendations, the health service made substantial enhancements to its procedures for preventing and addressing claims of sexual abuse, and those included establishing clear practices and protocols to handle such concerns in such instances of horrendous abuse. In October 2009, on foot of requests from Dignity4Patients, the then Minister for Health and Children announced the establishment of an independent non-statutory review, the Drogheda review. The purpose of the review was to advise on whether a further investigation into the procedures and practices at the hospital during that period would be of significant public benefit in helping to improve best-practice guidelines and policies. That review was carried out by retired High Court judge, Mr. Justice T.C. Smyth, who submitted his report to the then Minister in September 2010. The report recommended that a further investigation should not be held and that, in order to avoid prejudicing current or future civil or criminal cases, the report should not be published. Dignity4Patients has been campaigning on behalf of the victims for many years. It is an organisation that has long sought an inquiry into the sexual abuse of patients and in the past year has sought that in a more formal way. In April, I met with representatives of Dignity4Patients and as part of that engagement programme, I asked them to share with me their areas of concern and those areas they felt could best be addressed by further inquiries. In their response, they detailed their call for a statutory investigation, highlighted specific issues they felt were as yet unaddressed by other mechanisms, and sought an opportunity to have a space for the voice of victims and survivors. At that time, I committed to engaging with my Government colleagues on how to best provide answers to the issues raised by Dignity4Patients on behalf of the victims. I met with the group again on Monday, 24 November and I remain committed to the group and to identifying an appropriate and bespoke response to the issues raised and the needs identified by it. It is very important to say that we have - or I certainly hope we have - been working in great partnership with Dignity4Patients, a group for which I have enormous respect and regard, both as to the way in which it represents the advocates, survivors and victims but also the complete professionalism with which it approaches its work. On 26 November, the Government agreed that a time-bound scoping exercise be undertaken by an independent person in response to requests from Dignity4Patients on behalf of victims and survivors of Michael Shine. For decades, victims and survivors of Michael-Shine have carried trauma and have sought recognition and accountability. Their strength and willingness to continue pressing for the truth will, I hope, be met with more compassion, seriousness and action. There is a substantial body of work involved, including examination of all previous reports, relevant court findings, hospital and institutional actions and the historical context of the abuse. I am glad we have had this very structured engagement with Dignity4Patients and with victims and advocates to ensure their experiences, expectations and their needs are fully reflected and to try to work out what the outstanding issues are to which we can provide further answers, what information is held by the State in that regard, how we approach this in the most contained but impactful way, and how, within that, we give the appropriate voice for survivors. I announced the appointment of Mr. Lorcan Staines SC as the independent facilitator to conduct this scoping exercise following engagement with the Attorney General. Mr. Staines commenced his work on 3 March and this scoping exercise will run for up to 16 weeks. He has been finalising the terms of reference for the scoping exercise in direct consultation with Dignity4Patients and with the Department for Health on the other side. Mr. Staines has two decades of experience of criminal, regulatory and administrative law and he is widely recognised for his specialist work with victims and vulnerable witnesses. It is also important to say that during the process, Dignity4Patients will have the support of expert advisers, including Maeve Lewis, former CEO of One in Four, and Professor Phil Scraton, a specialist in inquests and inquiry models, as well as their solicitor, Diarmuid Brecknell of Phoenix Law. Government has emphasised the need for the process to be survivor-centred and Mr. Staines will receive all necessary supports to ensure a victim-centred, trauma-informed, human-rights based approach underpins the scoping exercise and any subsequent statutory processes. I have asked that the well-being of victims and survivors remain central throughout this process. The final report and recommendations will be submitted to Government to guide the development of an appropriate and bespoke response to the issues raised and to the needs identified by Dignity4Patients. I emphasise the paramount importance of the lived experiences of those affected by Mr. Staines’s work. It is vitally important that he get the opportunity to engage with victims and survivors, for them to have their voices heard at this stage, and to create a process that enables their voice be heard in the future. In order for that stakeholder engagement to begin, a lawful basis to process personal data for these exercises was required in alignment with Article 6(1)(e), Article 9(2)(i) and Article 10 of the general data protection regulation, GDPR. In accordance with these articles, the making of regulations under the Data Protection Act 2018 was necessary to give domestic legal effect to this basis, to ensure legal certainty, foreseeability and to place appropriate safeguards on a statutory footing. No processing could commence until the necessary statutory framework was in place. On 24 March, the Houses approved the data protection regulations for this scoping exercise and I signed them on 9 April. Our commitment is to ensure a process that recognises the suffering experienced, honours the voices of victims and survivors, and seeks a path towards truth and healing. I again acknowledge the courage of victims and survivors, whose experiences have brought us to this point. Their voices must remain central as this work continues. This scoping exercise and the subsequent next steps will proceed with independence, compassion and a trauma-informed approach. I really wish to pay tribute to the hundreds of men across counties Meath and Louth who have been impacted and who will be impacted yet again as we discuss this. I acknowledge their work and their dignity and I acknowledge the people who have provided a broad support network to them and the advocates who have brought us to this point. We are more than halfway through a facilitative process. I believe, and hope the House agrees with me, that this has been a process based on genuine collaboration and a real effort to try to find a mechanism to answer the questions that can possibly be answered. I hope through this process that we will find some measure of a voice for those issues that a resolution can be found for, though I always worry that no matter what way we structure it or no matter what we do we will disappoint, or that some people will not find the justice they hope to seek throughout any process. However, we are here to try to facilitate this. We are here to try to give this voice, respect and dignity that has not been provided to date, certainly not in the original experience within the hospital or in the process since then. I do not think anybody would disagree with me on that point. I thank the groups for their ongoing collaboration. I apologise to Members and to anybody watching as I cannot stay. A Cabinet meeting began at 4.30 p.m. It is now 4.40 p.m., and I have to attend. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, is here with me and I assure Members that I will be reading back the contributions made by all of them. We have spoken about this in part in the past in this House and I have spoken with many of Members individually, but I wish to apologise to anybody who is watching that it is not possible for me to stay due to the Cabinet meeting. I thank the House for facilitating statements at this time. It is something we will continue to discuss. There is ongoing work that I am not in a position to discuss today because some of it has to go back to Cabinet. I cannot breach Cabinet confidentiality but I acknowledge that the work is continuing with the Dignity4Patients group and its representatives in the same collaborative way that has brought us to this point.

I welcome that a scoping exercise has been established. I reiterate the very clear and just demand that a full public inquiry be delivered and secured to allow the full truth to emerge. I wish to be very clear because the Minister said that people may or may not be satisfied at the end of the process. To ensure that as many people as possible are satisfied, we need to understand what it is they are looking for. We need to know at the end of this process precisely the details of the crimes that Michael Shine committed but we also need to know who knew, at what stage they knew and how in God's name this was allowed to continue for so long and that so many young lives were destroyed, and so many lives and innocence were taken away from people. It is very simple. That is what we need at the end of this process. I want to put on the record again my huge commendation and admiration for Dignity4Patients, and each and every one of those victims and survivors who told their stories and who often were not believed and ignored or dismissed. It was largely because they were young men, and they were dismissed out of hand. They persevered and deserve any credit that is going for the progress that has been made to date.

Just over a year ago, I had the privilege of hosting Dignity4Patients in Leinster House where five courageous survivors of convicted sexual abuser, Michael Shine, shared their testimonies with TDs, Senators and political staff. Survivors Larry, Cianan, Gerard, Peter and Ian spoke with one voice on behalf of the hundreds of known victims who had come forward. Their message was clear: truth matters and transparency matters. Complaints and reports of sexual abuse by Michael Shine were first made to hospital authorities as early as 1964 with more documented reports throughout the seventies and eighties. Victims have stated that this was an open secret at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, but nobody batted an eyelid. In 1995, Bernadette Sullivan, a nurse, stepped forward and made a formal complaint. This was the beginning of Michael Shine's well overdue downfall and exposure as the most prolific paedophile in Europe. She has been called a whistleblower. She is, in fact, a hero. The wheels of justice turned slowly and that is why in 2026 we are still looking for answers. I acknowledge the immense pain and trauma that survivors of Michael Shine have endured, the long and difficult path they have walked with Dignity4Patients in their fight for truth and justice, their positive engagement with the scoping inquiry and the ongoing campaign for a public inquiry. The Government must also support them to rebuild their lives. Through my own local engagement with survivors and their families, I know how important this support provided by Dignity4Patients is. The people of Drogheda and beyond rightly view this as a lifeline. While the scoping exercise was an important and welcome step, it also exposed the lack of capacity to support victims and survivors. Adequate funding and resources must be provided to Dignity4Patients by the Government ahead of any potential next steps that follow this exercise. It is mind-boggling that it has not been provided with funding for an advocacy worker, despite submitting a business case for this, particularly when it is supported over 400 vulnerable people and brave survivors with only two advocacy team members. The State has a duty of care to survivors like Larry, Cianan, Gerard, Peter, Ian and many more like them. I am proud to personally know these men. I am immensely proud of their bravery. I thank them for trusting me with their painful experience. I reassure anybody out who is watching today who has been affected similarly that Dignity4Patients has an ongoing helpline, Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are people there to listen and support them.

Michael Shine was an abuser who was well known for decades hiding in plain sight. There have been multiple failures, whether we are talking about Our Lady of Lourdes, Medical Missionaries of Mary, the Garda, successive Departments of Health and by the State and many Governments. We all welcome the scoping exercise by Lorcan Staines. There has been good engagement by the survivors and victims. However, it only matters if it provides what is needed, which is a full public inquiry that provides the absolute truth in relation to what happened and beyond what happened, why it happened and why it continued to happen for so long. Like many others, I was very taken when I listened to the stories of the likes of Larry, Cianan, Gerard, Peter and Ian. Many of us were at that presentation and many others over the years by those survivors. We are talking about Dignity4Patients, which has done huge work on delivering where we are today. It represents 398 men and two women. We know that the group represents a lot more. We cannot even imagine how many were abused by Michael Shine. I reiterate what Deputy Byrne said about the absolute necessity for funding, but also that notice goes out for those who still have not spoken and need to that Dignity4Patients and others are there to provide that support. This is back to the Government. It is about ensuring that the scoping exercise does what it is supposed to and that we find a means of providing people with the full powers of inquiry that are required.

I acknowledge the words of the Minister. She mentioned two counties in her contribution. She did not mention County Dublin. There are people living in my constituency who were living there when they were abused by Michael Shine because Our Lady of Lourdes is the local hospital for Balbriggan. I am sure that was an oversight on her part. What is at the heart of this is that these kids and their families were not listened to. When we talk to victims and survivors of that vile and disgusting man, they tell us that everybody knew but nobody stood up. As my colleagues said, it was an open secret along the corridors of Our Lady of Lourdes. The State failed those children, their families and the good decent people in the hospital who were trying to speak up. Those kids carried that hurt into adulthood but they have carried themselves with dignity. They have carried themselves so well. I pay tribute to the Dignity4Patients group. The Minister needs to resource that group. It is a lifeline and a support for those victims. That group needs to be resourced.

The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, spent time in County Louth last Friday opening a welcome new social housing development. It was great to welcome him to our hometown and our small city. In the time he spent in County Louth, there was a very strong chance that some of the men he met are survivors and victims of disgraced paedophile and former doctor, Michael Shine. The spectre or ghost of Michael Shine hangs over my hometown, counties Louth and Meath, north County Dublin and parts of counties Cavan and Monaghan. That one of Europe's most prolific sex offenders and abusers managed to get away with immunity with what he did over many decades working in one of the most substantial and largest public hospitals in our country requires the kind of statutory investigation that successive Governments have not been of a mind to grant. Michael Shine has spent a short time behind bars. Prosecution through the criminal courts and spending time behind bars having lost one's liberty for a short period does not accountability make. Accountability is a more complex matter. When we discuss the crimes of Michael Shine and the way in which he was allowed to operate with impunity up until the mid-1990s, thanks to the actions of Bernadette Sullivan, we need to look more closely at the environment in which he was allowed to operate. As I have said in this Chamber on countless occasions, there was a network. The system allowed this to happen. It turned a blind eye to the damage done to my friends, my peers, my contemporaries, and it went on for far too long. It went on for years without any intervention whatsoever being made. I want to say, hand on heart, that I am grateful - if gratitude is the right emotion or position to take - for the interest the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has taken in this matter since her appointment as Minister for Health. That interest was generated by the remarkable campaign and advocacy work done by the Dignity4Patients group and the victims and survivors, individually and collectively, of Michael Shine, many of whom are friends, contemporaries and peers of mine - people I grew up with. They deserve a form of justice that has been denied to them to date. In the context of the scoping exercise process we are in at the moment, it is appropriate to acknowledge that many of the survivors and victims who have engaged with Lorcan Staines and the experts who are advising on the scoping exercise have acknowledged that this is the most significant initiative taken to date since they first went public. Some of them had to go public and waive their anonymity and tell their story in public. They should not have had to do that. I pay tribute to their courage, bravery and tenacity, and to the bravery of their families as well, and to the Dignity4Patients group which supported these men in very difficult circumstances who had to state publicly what happened to them, and all of the vulnerabilities that it involved. It has been a remarkable journey. I do not want to pre-empt the outcome of the scoping exercise. I do not necessarily want to interrogate the words of the Minister today and what she said on previous occasions, especially back in March in this House, but there is a clear expectation that a form of statutory inquiry or commission of investigation will emanate from this process. We know the legislation guiding these processes. We are aware of it and we understand it. We are conditioned to expect a bespoke arrangement to allow an investigation that has a statutory basis to happen. Without pre-empting the outcome of the scoping exercise, which would be unfair to those who are involved – I do not necessarily want to scope out what the frame of a process like that would look like - there need to be powers of compellability. An Garda Síochána needs to be held to account for how it handled the management of complaints over the years. Clearly the Medical Missionaries of Mary will be involved in that as well, as the owners and operators of the hospital before it was taken over by the North Eastern Health Board, which was, to the best of my recollection, in 1997. In addition, the old North Eastern Health Board, the Department of Health and any other agency that had any kind of responsibility whatsoever from the point at which former Dr. Michael Shine was allowed to perpetrate these crimes against young children, who are now young men, must be involved. Many of the men who suffered at the hands of Michael Shine are now dead. They have gone to their graves without any form of public accountability for the actions of Michael Shine, the way in which these crimes were allowed to happen and how he was permitted to operate with impunity for so long. There are lots of unanswered questions. This is an initiative I support and that the patients support. As colleagues said earlier, it is a constant battle. The very first statement I made in this House when I was elected back in 2011 was for additional funding for Dignity4Patients. That funding was never more essential than it is now because more victims and survivors are coming forward. When this emerges again into the public domain, it piques interest. Clearly, financial support and advocacy support are required. I appeal to the Minister to have an open mind on that and to grant the group the support it needs to help the victims through this very welcome process.

We in the Social Democrats welcome today's statement and the scoping exercise into Michael Shine's abuse. I thank the Minister for Health for providing time for this dedicated debate. Michael Shine is one of the most notorious and prolific paedophiles in Irish history and a full public inquiry into his abuse is long overdue and must finally be delivered. His abuse was carried out on an industrial scale and went unchecked for far too long – dating as far back as the 1960s and continuing throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Reports of his abuse at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda began in 1964, but no action was taken by the hospital and the beginning of the despicable pattern in our State institutions continued. Public bodies turned a blind eye to the abuse of children and young people, allowing him to continue his crimes for decades. Even as recently as the early 2000s, when a victim took the brave step of making a formal complaint to the Garda, he was told that there was not sufficient evidence and that he should write a letter of apology to Michael Shine for bringing the allegation. That is an outrageous situation. It is more evidence of a system that has systematically failed victims over and over again, retraumatising them rather than supporting them. It is not as if Shine's abuses were not known. It has been described as an open secret locally, yet his crimes went unchecked by the State for decades. As has been the case again and again, the systems that should protect and support victims closed ranks. There must be accountability for this. We need to know who knew what, who facilitated it, and who allowed it to continue and to cover it up. Why was this man aided and abetted for so long? While it is welcome that a scoping exercise is finally under way, why has it taken decades to get to this point? In a country with such a long and dark history of abuse, we should know better. More decisive action should have been taken years ago. There have been too many cases of abuse in which the State has dragged its heels, in particular when it comes to establishing inquiries, ensuring transparency and delivering accountability. For years, survivors have sought an inquiry to examine how Shine's abuses were allowed to go unfettered for so long and why it took decades to secure a conviction. The fact of the matter is that Michael Shine has only served three years in jail for these horrific crimes. Survivors have rightly argued that this is not justice served given he has only been convicted for crimes against nine boys when we know there were so many more victims of his crimes. The Court of Appeal said he preyed on these young boys whom he was entrusted to medically examine. To date, more than 400 men have come forward. However, new cases continue to emerge and victims believe that a more accurate figure could be in excess of 1,000. Even as recently as last year Shine still showed no remorse, nor would he take any responsibility for his depraved crimes. This is a man who got to retire more than 30 years ago on a full pension, having spent decades abusing boys and young men. It took until 2019 for him to face any jail time, albeit far too short a sentence. That was following years of him fighting every step of the way, even seeking damages from the State. His recent prosecution barely scratched the surface of the crimes he committed. Notwithstanding the unjustifiable delays in getting to this point, it is a positive development that this scoping exercise is finally under way. The appointment of Lorcan Staines SC in March was a welcome step. It is essential that this scoping exercise is now followed by a full statutory inquiry in which victims, who have waited long enough, should have their voices heard. On behalf of the Social Democrats I pay tribute to the courage and resilience of the survivors and their representative group, Dignity4Patients. They should not have had to tell their stories again and again to finally secure this scoping exercise. Their tireless fight in the pursuit of truth must now be honoured with a full statutory inquiry. Nothing less will suffice. The system failed them. Now it must support them in the pursuit of truth. A statutory public inquiry is the only way to properly investigate not only the actions of Michael Shine but also the failings of several public bodies and how this was allowed to continue for so long. The matter has never been properly dealt with. It is time for the State to rectify that and ensure that this is never allowed to happen again. After decades of fighting for justice and truth, the scoping exercise's 16-week timeframe must be adhered to. This process must finally deliver for the survivors. It is crucial that any ultimate statutory inquiry is victim-centred and adheres to their experiences and needs. Victims' stories must be listened to and their questions must be answered. Above all, we must ensure nothing like this can ever happen again. We in the Social Democrats will work with the Government in whatever way we can to advance this important work and obtain justice for the victims once and for all.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, for being here today. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the long-awaited and much-needed scoping exercise on the disgusting paedophile Michael Shine. He abused his position. In a depraved manner, he took advantage of his perceived respectability, and the trust we usually place in the medical profession, to abuse hundreds of patients. Today, I acknowledge and pay tribute to the courage of those victims – the survivors who have carried this burden for decades and who were denied not only justice but also any semblance of support in dealing with the pain and trauma of their abuse. I always get nervous when I speak about these things because they are so deeply personal to so many. You want to do justice to them and their trauma every time you come into these Houses to speak about them, but the truth is that none of us in here really can. The only way in which we can push for them is to make sure we listen to them now. Having listened to Deputy Nash, who has been to the forefront of this since he entered elected office, I note it is very rare that all the Louth TDs stand in this place in complete agreement. All of us knew what was going on. Everyone from County Louth and from our home knew about it. Even I, as a child, knew about Michael Shine nearly as a verb, not understanding what was involved, the abuse or its consequences. The reason we did not understand is because the victims were silenced and everything was in place to protect Michael Shine, the hospital and the authorities. Thank God we have had representatives like Deputy Nash and others to speak out about this and represent, in these Houses and other places, the people affected, the whistleblowers and everyone who, against all odds and to the detriment of their careers, spoke out against this absolute demon who abused so many. I cannot use the words I wish to put on the record of the House because they would be very unparliamentary. It is only when you hear the stories and look into the eyes of the men involved, the victims, that you realise what occurred. It is those eyes that I look at. I look at the wee pictures of what the men looked like as children. You look at your own children and think, “Jesus, it could be my wee boys. It could be my brothers.” It could be anyone. It could be any of us. It is important that the Government continue to listen to Dignity4Patients. I echo what other representatives have said here today about supporting and funding Dignity4Patients because of what it has been doing over decades, on a shoestring, to support so many victims. There are hundreds of victims. I hope a statutory inquiry is to come. The victims trust Dignity4Patients and we owe them respect. We owe Dignity4Patients so much in this House and we need to respect that. I very much acknowledge the work of Mr. Lorcan Staines SC and Gemma McLoughlin-Burke JC because the feedback I am getting from the survivors is really positive. The work is very important and really matters after years of frustration and mistrust. We have to keep it up and keep listening to the victims. It shows what can occur when Government actually listens, properly engages and places survivors at the centre of the process rather than at its margins. That is where it is at. As a Senator in the previous Seanad, I worked very closely with an awful lot of victims of the mother and baby homes. They very much felt outside every single framework. That is where we failed miserably regarding the related scoping inquiries. We forgot the victim. We cannot move on to the next stage if we do not do well on this stage. We have to make sure that all the buildings and settings in which Michael Shine abused the children are taken into consideration. This has to be the first part of a two-stage process. We have to make sure this is being done not only for the victims who came forward but also to ensure that what occurred never happens again, that there is safeguarding and that there is a trusted structure to report abuse. Victims are always silenced. They are always afraid that they will not be heard and they will not be believed. If there is a process in place as a default, they will come forward. We cannot change what happened in the past but we can change what could happen in the future and ensure the statutory inquiry has a strong focus on patient safety and sexual abuse prevention. Lessons must not simply be documented and thought about but acted upon. It would do us all well to listen to the stories and testimony of victims of Michael Shine because doing so grounds us in a dark, dark time for this country. It shows why it is important to listen to victims. It shows why it is important to have proper safeguarding in our hospitals. It shows why it is important that victims be believed, trusted and minded. An awful lot of this is just about minding people, looking after them and giving them some dignity. We owe it to the victims and to those who were abused as wee children to see this through fully, properly and without delay.

I sincerely thank the Members of the House for their heartfelt contributions this evening and the specific points raised. Today, the House has reflected on the scoping exercise in response to requests from Dignity4Patients on behalf of the victims and survivors of Michael Shine. As we close, I want to bring us back to the heart of why this process matters. It is because it affects the lives of the people who have been so deeply shaped by the events and systems we are now examining. The survivors and victims who came forward through Dignity4Patients have shown immense courage. Everyone here today has remarked on that courage. The victims have carried trauma and pain for a very long time, and it takes profound bravery to revisit the experience of harm and violation in order to help to shape a system that is safer for others. Deputy Nash referred to people coming forward initially. That must have been very traumatic and required great bravery, not to mind revisiting the trauma now. The appointment of Mr. Lorcan Staines SC, and the trauma-informed, victim-centred approach underpinning the scoping exercise, represent the commitment of the Government, including the Minister for Health, to ensuring victims and survivors are heard and treated with dignity, respect and care at every step. Their well-being is the foundation upon which this work is built. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, had to attend the Cabinet meeting and has already referred to that. However, her officials are present today and she will be looking at all the contributions made in this debate. This scoping exercise is essential for enabling those impacted to contribute to shaping any future response. Its purpose to recognise harm, analyse failures and strengthen our system to ensure that it is safe, effective and compassionate enough to prevent such failures from happening again. It is important to emphasise that this scoping exercise will be substantive with a focus on rigour and direct engagement with the lived experience of victims and survivors of Michael Shine. To the families, victims and survivors listening today, I say that their great courage and advocacy have shaped the scoping exercise and their voices will continue to guide what happens next. This process is intentionally designed so that the independent facilitator, Mr. Lorcan Staines SC, is tasked with finalising the terms of reference for the scoping exercise in direct consultation with Dignity4Patients. Mr. Staines will have the resources and the full support from Government he requires to assess the full situation and provide a meaningful bespoke approach and response capable of addressing decades-long traumas. We thank Mr. Staines for his work on this scoping exercise, which is over halfway through the 16-week period, and look forward receiving his final report. We particularly thank Dignity4Patients for its sincere and meaningful engagement with Mr. Staines to finalise the terms of reference and for its continued support to the victims and survivors. Mr. Staines will carry out his role as the independent facilitator through direct engagement with victims and survivors of Michael Shine. The lived experience and voices of victims and survivors are at the centre of this scoping exercise and will shape this work. We particularly thank victims and survivors for engaging with Mr. Staines and for their incredible courage and commitment to this process. We appreciate that participating in the process like this must be exceptionally difficult for them and their families but their lived experience is essential to shaping a bespoke approach that will lead to real and lasting change. Mr. Staines is approaching his work with care, independence and respect and with the engagement of victims and survivors, this scoping exercise will deliver the understanding accountability and improvements that victims and survivors, their families and the public deserve. We have a responsibility to those impacted to make sure this work is careful, caring, comprehensive and considerate. It must result in real change and improvements. As the Minister stated earlier in the debate, the final report and recommendations will be submitted to Government to guide and development of an appropriate bespoke response to the issues raised and the needs identified on behalf of the victims and survivors of Michael Shine. Many speakers made reference to various aspects, which the Minister is taking under very careful consideration. We have listened carefully to everything raised in this House today regarding the victims and survivors of Michael Shine. I want to thank all Members for their continued engagement on this very important matter and echo whatever everyone has said, namely, that this is a partnership with Dignity4Patients and, more particularly, the people its represents - the victims and survivors of Michael Shine.