VICTIMS OF CONVICTED paedophile surgeon Michael Shine have expressed “cautious optimism” after Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill pledged talks on how to “best provide answers” to their questions surrounding the decades long sexual abuse case.
The men are demanding a public inquiry to investigate claims that the congregation of nuns that operated the hospital where Shine worked for more than 30 years knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue.
Gerard Murray is one of 371 men who have made allegations of sexual abuse against the once revered surgeon who worked as a consultant at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda.
The hospital was established and run by the Medical Missionaries of Mary until it was sold to the State in 1997.
Speaking after leaving a meeting at the Department of Health this afternoon, Gerard said that the Minister told the group that she “is going to do something and she admitted that this has to be dealt with,” but she stopped short of confirming what type of inquiry she favoured.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health confirmed that the Minister has “committed to engaging with the Taoiseach and to consult with others on how to best provide answers to the issues”.
Gerard was abused by Shine when he was four years old. Later, he was sexually assaulted at the age of 14, by a Christian Brother who has since died.
“It was a very positive meeting. She was empathetic.
“She told us that she is going to do something and she admitted that this has to be dealt with.
“She didn’t say yes or no on whether it should be a Commission of Investigation or a different type of inquiry.
“Cautiously optimistic is probably the best way to describe how we are feeling now.”
CEO of support and advocacy organisation Dignity4Patients Adrienne Reilly and Diarmuid Brecknell of Phoenix Law attended the meeting with the victims.
Dignity4Patients is calling for a Commission of Investigation to probe claims that authorities knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue for decades.
Ms Brecknell said: “The Minister said that something needs to be done and she appreciates that it needs to be timely.”
“She is committed to finding a way forward that is either a Commission of Investigation or another model that is victim-led and is now going to discuss it with the Taoiseach."
“She also said that she intends to speak with Caoilfhionn Gallagher, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, about the situation.”
Shine began working as a senior registrar at the Drogheda hospital in 1964, quickly rising to consultant in 1968. He remained at the hospital until 1995.
In 1997, the hospital was sold by the congregation to the Department of Health and a fund worth £1.4 million was set aside to indemnify the State against allegations of sexual abuse.
Hundreds of men claim that they were abused by the former surgeon, now in his nineties, over decades, but in 2025, he is a free man after serving just three years in prison.
In November 2017, guilty verdicts for Shine on three counts of assaulting two teenage patients on dates between 1974 and 1976 were handed down by a jury. However, he was granted bail pending an appeal against the conviction.
Shine was eventually jailed for four years in 2019 following a separate case for abusing seven boys in his care over a period of three decades and was released in February 2022.