A Sinn Féin senator who has worked closely with the Stardust families has said that if there is a redress scheme for survivors and relatives of the victims, the Government needs to engage with them about it.
Lynn Boylan said that the previous compensation scheme was “deeply damaging” to people because it contained non-disclosures and there were threats that people could lose their homes if they took any legal action.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, she said she believes the issue of redress was not discussed at yesterday’s meeting between the Stardust group and the Taoiseach at Government Buildings.
Senator Boylan said their campaign has never been about money and has always been centred on truth and justice.
“What is absolutely critical is that the Government must engage with the families and their legal teams and on the terms of reference of a redress scheme because they can’t take any more mistreatment,” she said.
Senator Boylan said the inquests had revealed the truth about what happened at the Stardust and that lawyers now want to reflect on that and do not want to do anything that could damage or prejudice any future criminal or legal proceedings.
She also said that Tuesday’s State apology needs to make clear what the State is apologising for and if its accepting failures, to detail what those failures were.
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Speaking on the same programme, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said he “wouldn’t rule anything out” in relation to the possibility of a cold case review of the Stardust fire.
Minister Ryan said “that will be something the Government will have to consider”.
However, he said “we will first and foremost have to take advice from the attorney general”, and that any decision on the issue “isn’t the immediate focus”.
Minister Ryan said the Government is currently focused on an full apology to the Stardust families, who he said have been through a “harrowing” experience.
He said Government “want to work with them and get it [the apology] right”, and that “the first apology is for the delay in justice”.
Minister Ryan said “that will be completed on Tuesday” and that he does not want to “pre-empt that”.
Meanwhile, speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, Minister of State Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the “State does need to apologise” to the Stardust families for the lengthy journey they were forced to take to receive this week’s judgment.
“Tragic events happen but how the State and other actors react can make it very, very much worse as it did in this case.
“The State has a role in that part of it,” she said.
Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly said the Stardust families were “treated like a negotiation by the State”.
Mr Daly said: “I believe there will probably be a redress scheme, but that was mentioned also in reports over weekend.
“But we don’t know what that is going to entail.”
Speaking on the same programme, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said it “is important that the State accepts responsibility and acknowledges its failings” in the apology, adding that she thinks there is “a need for further supports and a redress scheme”.
“However, how that’s implemented is going to be so important because we saw with the redress scheme for the mother and baby homes survivors that actually that in itself was a traumatic process for them,” she said.
Ms Whitmore said: “I do think we need to reflect it as a State as well on how we deal with these instances, where there have been clear failings by the State and it’s like we expect people to fight for every last inch of justice that they get and I think that it’s time now for us to stop doing that.”
