Dignity4Patients - Press Statement 26.11.2025
- Dignity 4Patients
- Nov 26
- 2 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF VICTIMS OF MICHAEL SHINE
Victims and survivors of former surgeon and convicted sexual offender Michael Shine welcome a commitment from the Minister for Health and the government to establish a 16-week ‘scoping exercise’ to help set the foundations for a statutory inquiry process into institutions and authorities that allowed decades of abuse by convicted sexual offender Michael Shine.
Shine was jailed for four years in 2019 for sexually abusing boys in his care. To date, more than 390 men have made allegations of abuse against the now disgraced doctor.
Dignity4Patients, with victim representative Cianan Murray and their solicitor Diarmuid Brecknell, attended a very positive meeting in the Department of Health on Monday. The Minister and her officials outlined their intention to start a two-phased process to bring about a formal inquiry for the victims and survivors.
Adrienne Reilly, CEO of Dignity4Patients said “we wish to thank the Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, for standing by her previous promise and commitment to getting this process off the ground.”
“Today, victims and survivors welcome the fact that the Minister and the government appear to have listened to their call for a statutory inquiry – and to start a victim-centred process leading to an inquiry with full legal powers to compel individuals and organisations to appear.
“Victims hope this process will finally provide answers to long-standing questions about how their sexual abuse was handled by Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, the religious order running the hospital, the Medical Missionaries of Mary, An Garda Síochána, and successive Departments of Health.”
“They remain ‘cautiously optimistic’ as they enter this first cycle of engagement. The devil will be in the detail. And we need to go away and consider, along with victims and survivors, what has been proposed at this first stage.”
“It is now 49 years since the first complaint of sexual abuse by Michael Shine was reported to hospital authorities in 1977. This campaign has been ongoing for 32 years, first initiated by whistleblower nurse Bernadette Sullivan.”
Cianan Murray, who first reported his abuse to An Garda Siochana in 1995, said, “It is a bittersweet day - long overdue. Many victims are sadly no longer with us, and all have endured decades of trauma, silence and suffering. Finally, today, this is a real opportunity for victims and survivors to have their voices heard and believed and for their experiences to be fully investigated and officially acknowledged.”
Media Contact and for interviews: CEO – Adrienne Reilly, 0830886301
Helpline Support: 041 9843730 Monday – Thursday 10.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.
Email: support@dignity4patients.org Website: www.dignity4patients.org Twitter: @Dignity4patient
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm. Press Statement in Full - PDF
