An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

I am stating the fact that a Congolese man is dead who went into a shop and was accused of shoplifting. That is in all of the media reports. No amount of investigations can ever explain or give any sort of reason that would be acceptable that a man would go into the shop and end up dead for suspected shoplifting. Whether there is an investigation and due process, as a country and as people we should never ever be okay that excessive force would be used by anybody where somebody ends up dead. Regardless of investigations going on, the facts are the facts. There is nothing that can be found in that investigation, to my mind, that will ever make that okay. Regardless of crimes in this country, we do not have corporal punishment or the death penalty.
People can surmise and guess all day about what happened, why he was shoplifting or why he was there. Regardless of any of those variables, the man is dead. If this was anybody else who went into a shop, was accused of shoplifting and was dead at the end, everybody in this Chamber would be in here at least acknowledging the man, his family, his friends and the fact of his death. No investigation is going to change that. Whatever happened was completely wrong and should never happen again in this country.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19