Leo Varadkar was barely six years old when the whole affair erupted. He said learning about the case had been “eye-opening” for him but recognises that Joanne was very “badly treated by our State and by our society”. Simon Coveney was also a youngster at the time and offered his own apology.

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan, on the other hand, will remember the Kerry Babies case well, being of an older vintage. He also said Joanne had been subject to a “prolonged ordeal that was simply wrong on every level”.

Ms Hayes will no doubt welcome her vindication and her long-awaited apology from the gardaí and the State but she has not received a cent in compensation for her ordeal. It is, of course, open to her to sue the State but that could take years and may, in any event, be statute barred.

Joanne Hayes has suffered enough: Hunted by the gardaí, pilloried in the witness box during a tribunal that turned into a trial against her and haunted ever since, she deserves to live out the rest of her life in comfort and blissful obscurity.

That can only be secured by giving her compensation. She deserves it and justice demands it.