Taoiseach to offer State apology to families, victims, and survivors of Stardust tragedy

Families of the Stardust survivors and victims outside Government Buildings prior to a meeting with Taoiseach Simon Harris on Saturday. After the meeting, they said they had been invited to the Dáil on Tuesday for an official apology.

Taoiseach Simon Harris will on Tuesday offer a State apology to the families, victims, and survivors of the Stardust tragedy.

Some 48 people lost their lives in the February 1981 fire at a disco in north Dublin. At an inquest last week, a jury returned a verdict that they were unlawfully killed. It came after four decades of campaigning by families and survivors.

Mr Harris is set to tell Cabinet colleagues ahead of his speech in the Dáil that he intends to offer a State apology and will note that the Government accepts the verdict and recommendations of the inquest jury and ask the minister for justice and other relevant ministers to report back on their implementation.

Mr Harris is also set to task the Department of the Taoiseach with preparing proposals to "appropriately commemorate" the disaster as requested by and in consultation with the families.

After the meeting at Government Buildings in Dublin, campaigners said they had been invited to the Dáil on Tuesday for an official apology.

They said families will also receive individual written apologies.

In a statement after meeting survivors and the families of the victims of the Stardust fire, Mr Harris said: “It was a humbling and emotional meeting. I want to thank every person who attended for what they told me, both as a group and in private, individual conversations.

“More than 70 people came to the Department of the Taoiseach today. However, I am acutely aware that the numbers affected by Stardust is many, many multiples of that.

“That includes those injured, the people working in Stardust, the frontline workers who fought to save lives on the night."

Speaking at a Fianna Fáil event in Dublin on Sunday, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the families of the victims have been through “an enormous trauma”.

He said nothing could ever console their loss, but said that he was supportive of a redress scheme.

“We will certainly, in addition to an apology, look at the entirety of all of that and see how the State can respond in consultation with the families and all the loved ones of the victims," said Mr Martin.

“Because there will be further consultations in the time ahead with them, but certainly, you know, we’re gonna give it a very serious consideration."

Asked if he would support a redress scheme, he said: “I think we have to do what’s right by the families in particular, and I certainly will be proactive in that regard and have a positive disposition towards that.”