“I am deeply sorry that you were made to fight for so long that they went to their graves never knowing the truth,” he said.
“Today we say formally and without any equivocation, we are sorry. We failed you when you needed us the most. From the very beginning, we should have stood with you, but instead we forced you to stand against us,” he said.
Shattered lives
He continued that 48 young people lost their lives in the Stardust disaster, many more were injured, and even more still had their lives broken and shattered forever.
He said he hoped the days since last Thursday, when a Dublin City Coroner’s Court finding of “unlawful killing" was delivered, have marked a turning point.
Salt in wounds
“I hope this is a moment when the State, which rubbed salt in your terrible wounds, starts to help you heal,” he said.
He mentioned by name all of the victims of the Stardust and outlined some personal details about each one.
“You asked me to try to really understand your experience, to really feel your pain and to immerse myself in your world, as set out in your eloquent pen portraits to the inquest," Harris said.
“On 13 February 1981, 48 daughters and sons, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, cousins and in-laws, uncles and aunts, neighbours and friends and co-workers, went out to the Stardust on the night of the dancing competition, and never came home.
“For their families, in the nightmare that was to follow, their loved ones not only lost their lives, they lost their identities. They were much, much more than numbers.
“They were bright, beautiful people. They had plans and dreams, their whole lives ahead of them,” he said.
Scarred forever
“Today we think as well of the hundreds of people who were injured and scarred forever, physically and mentally. Scarred by fire; scarred by survival.
"We think of the people working in the Stardust, the waiters and waitresses, the doormen and DJs.
"We think of the frontline workers who fought to save lives on the night. The fire crews, the ambulance and hospital staff, the gardaí, the army, the taxi drivers.
“I want to acknowledge those who came forward many years later and told their stories at the inquest.
“I want to acknowledge the Dublin communities who were good neighbours to the Stardust families and the communities across Ireland who have supported them for 43 years,” he said.
'Misery heaped on tragedy'
It was a great and eternal shame that far from the warm embrace of a caring State, the Stardust families experienced a cold shoulder, and a deaf ear, and two generations of struggle for truth and justice, the Taoiseach continued.
“Instead, it is to our great shame that State processes heaped misery upon tragedy for the Stardust families.
“I am so deeply sorry your first bid for justice ended with suspicion being cast on those who had died or survived on that catastrophic night.
"With your pain and grief compounded by stigma and rejection, the families were forced to fight for decades to obtain the vindication you won last Thursday when the inquest returned a verdict of “unlawful killing” in the case of your 48 family members.
“For all of this, as Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, I apologise unreservedly to all the families of the Stardust victims and all the survivors for the hurt that was done to them and for the profoundly painful years of struggle for the truth,” he said.
Wrongly criminalised
“I apologise to the families that those present on the night of the fire were wrongly criminalised through the allegation of arson which was an attack on their reputations.
“I say today every person there was innocent.
“I say today the truth is now known.
“Not only were they innocent – they were ‘unlawfully killed’,” he said.
The Government accepts the findings of the Coroner’s Court and the recommendations of the jury, the Taoiseach added.
This was formally noted at Cabinet this morning (23 April) and the Minister for Justice and other relevant ministers have been asked to report back on implementation, he said.
Proposals to appropriately commemorate the disaster, as requested by the families, will also be prepared.
He thanked Dr Myra Cullinane, for her “sensitive and meticulous conduct” of the inquest.