Commission of investigation recommended into former hospital consultant Michael Shine
- Dignity 4Patients
- 16 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Shauna Bowers- 16/07/2026- The Irish Times- [Ireland]- [Michael Shine]
A statutory commission of investigation should be carried out into convicted sex offender and former hospital consultant Michael Shine, an independent report has recommended.
Shine worked in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda from 1964 until 1995. In March that year the chief executive of the hospital was informed of a complaint of abuse against Shine by the North Eastern Health Board.
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.
He was convicted in 2017 and 2019 of sexual offences and in 2020 he was convicted of assaulting seven boys between 1971 and 1992. He served three years in prison.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill announced a scoping exercise into the scandal earlier this year following a meeting in November with the Co Louth-based charity Dignity4Patients, which supports more than 400 survivors.
Senior counsel Lorcan Staines began work in March as the independent facilitator to conduct the scoping exercise within a time frame of 16 weeks.
In his final report, published on Thursday, Staines said while his role was not to make findings of fact, several “common themes” emerged from the accounts he received from the almost 75 survivors to whom he spoke.
He said allegations of abuse reported to him involved a broad range of ages and were reported to have occurred in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in Shine’s private practice in Fair Street, Drogheda, and in his own home.
Staines described the impact of the alleged abuse on these men, reporting many of them as being “self-deprecating” and “underplaying the seriousness of what had happened to them”.
“The damage done to these men was palpable, even following the passage of time. It was also clear that the harm had not been borne by them alone but had often radiated outward to their families and to those who cared for them,” he said.
Staines added that nearly all of the survivors who spoke to him “were of the view that Michael Shine’s conduct was a matter of public knowledge at the time”.
“Many referred to local warnings, local comments, and the phrase that ‘the dogs on the street’ knew what was happening,” the report added.
In his conclusion, Staines said the concerns and issues raised by the victims and survivors “have not been sufficiently considered and addressed in previous reviews”.
He recommended that a six-phase commission of investigation should be established and that these phases should run concurrently and start immediately.
“The approach is designed to avoid an inefficient and lengthy process and to provide a workable form of State response to the issues raised.”
According to the report, phase one should be an independent, document-based examination of the history of criminal complaints made to gardaí, the office of Director of Public Prosecutions, and of the decisions made on whether or not to prosecute.
Phase two should be a document-based review of the Medical Council’s response, while phase three should focus on the circumstances surrounding Shine’s retirement.
The report said phase four should focus on current patient-protection policies in the Irish healthcare system.
Phase five should be an “independent truth and recovery process” that allows victims and survivors to be heard in their own right.
Finally, phase six should amount to a “comprehensive investigation” into the actions of and events surrounding the abuse committed by Shine, followed by a report setting out, so far as the evidence permits, what was known, by whom, and at what stage.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm.
Dignity4Patients Commentary: Today marks a momentous day. Victims are relieved, exhausted, overwhelmed, in disbelief, and delighted. All at the same time. Survivor Cianan Murray stated it’s all "very positive. Maybe at long last, it’s the beginning of the end, hopefully.”