On 16 July 2026, the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, published the report of the Scoping Exercise into Michael Shine, carried out by Lorcan Staines SC. The Government has accepted its recommendations in full, and officials are now drafting Terms of Reference for a Commission of Investigation (COI), the formal, statutory inquiry that victims and survivors have been seeking for years.
At Phoenix Law, we act for over 400 clients through Dignity4Patients (D4P), the charity that has advocated for Michael Shine’s victims throughout this process, we have spent the past three years campaigning for exactly this outcome. This article explains what the report found, what happens next, and what it took to get here.
Who is Michael Shine, and why does this matter?
Michael Shine is not an alleged offender. He is a convicted sexual abuser of boys and young men, described by the Court of Appeal as a “prolific sexual offender.” The abuse reported to Mr Staines occurred at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, at Shine’s private practice on Fair Street, and in his own home, with allegations spanning from 1964 to 1990. Shine retired from the hospital on 13 October 1995.
What has driven survivors for decades is not just the abuse itself, but the scale of institutional failure around it. Mr Staines heard from approximately 75 victims and survivors directly, and his report records concerns about the conduct of nearly every body with a responsibility to act: hospital staff and its board, the North Eastern Health Board, the Medical Council, An Garda Síochána, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the courts. As the report puts it, no one has ever adequately explained how Shine’s conduct continued for so long, against so many victims, in multiple locations, without detection, or why the response that eventually followed was so mismanaged.
What the scoping exercise was, and what it recommends
The Government agreed in November 2025 to commission a time-bound scoping exercise, following a request from D4P. Mr Staines was appointed on 3 March 2026 and given up to 16 weeks to examine the existing record, listen to victims and survivors, and advise Government on next steps. It was not itself a statutory inquiry, so he had no power to compel documents or witnesses. His job was to determine whether a further State response was warranted, and if so, what form it should take.
His conclusion: with over 400 victims and survivors now identified, and questions that have never been properly examined, a further State response is required. He has recommended a six-phase Commission of Investigation, established under the Commission of Investigation Act 2004, chaired by one person, with all six phases running concurrently from the outset:
- Phase 1 – why so few complaints against Shine resulted in a conviction, examined through the Garda and DPP files
- Phase 2 – how the Medical Council responded to complaints made against him
- Phase 3 – the circumstances of his retirement from the hospital in October 1995
- Phase 4 – current patient-protection policies in Irish healthcare
- Phase 5 – a Truth and Recovery Process, giving victims and survivors a respectful, structured way to have their own accounts heard and recorded
- Phase 6 – a full investigation into what was known, by whom, and when, across all the relevant institutions via public hearings.
Mr Staines has also recommended against publishing the Drogheda Review (Smyth) report for now, suggesting that question be revisited once the Commission has concluded.
A report like this doesn’t happen on its own. Our Diarmuid Brecknell has been campaigning for a Commission of Investigation for three years, working alongside D4P on behalf of the survivor community in Drogheda and the surrounding area. That has meant sitting with victims individually, often for the first time hearing their accounts listened to in full; attending political meetings across successive Governments to keep the case for a statutory inquiry on the agenda; and taking part in detailed consultation on what the shape and terms of an inquiry should actually look like, so that when a scoping exercise was finally commissioned, it reflected what victims themselves said they needed. Dignity for Patients has been doing this work long before Phoenix Law’s involvement and are to be massively commended in keeping the flame alive for the victims.
That groundwork is reflected directly in this report. Mr Staines’ recommendation for a victim-centred Truth and Recovery Process, run alongside the more formal investigative phases rather than after them, echoes years of representations made on behalf of clients about being heard on their own terms, not just as witnesses in someone else’s process.
What happens now
The recommendations have been accepted by Government in full. The Department of Health and the Office of the Attorney General are now drafting the Terms of Reference for the Commission of Investigation, which will go back to Government for approval. That is a significant step, but not the final one. Phoenix Law will continue to represent our clients through this process, from the drafting of the Terms of Reference through to the Commission’s establishment and beyond.
If you or someone you know was affected by Michael Shine and has not yet come forward, or if you have questions about what a Commission of Investigation means for you, contact Phoenix Law or Dignity4Patients to discuss your options.
Diarmuid Brecknell
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