Statement issued on behalf of the dead woman's brother and sister, Tom and Maureen Connolly. The statement was read to media gathered outside the house where the dead woman had lived by local journalist Jimmy Gahan:
"The Connolly family have been subjected to a lot of media intrusion over the past couple of days. They are very concerned about this intrusion. They are very upset by it. They would ask for your co-operation and for your support in allowing them to grieve the death of their sister.
The Connolly family were totally unaware of the circumstances under which their sister suffered. They were not, unfortunately, given access to the house and they were therefore not aware of the conditions under which she was living. They are very, very saddened, very distressed, very upset by what has happened and they are now asking us to leave them alone so as they can actually grieve in their own way and they will not be giving interviews to anybody.
They have spoken with the Garda authorities. They have also spoken with the Health Service Executive and they are leaving all of the inquiries into the death of their sister to the HSE and to the gardaí.
They would again, because of the fact of their grief and the sadness occasioned by the death of their sister, they would ask that they be left in peace and they would please ask you, through me, to respect their wish for privacy at this very, very sad time in order that they may be allowed to grieve. I do know, having spoken to the family earlier, they are very, very concerned about the manner in which their sister died. They are now hoping that the full facts surrounding the tragedy will unfold with the inquiry set up both by the HSE and with the criminal investigation which I understand gardaí have launched here in Enniscorthy this afternoon.
Other than that, I don't believe that they have anything more they would like to add to that. They may possibly in time, when the full inquiry is completed, they may be in a position to say something at that stage, but now they are just too shocked, too saddened, too distressed, too upset to really say anything at all.
I understand it would have been several months, through no fault of their own, since they last saw their sister. Efforts were made, I understand, by the family to speak with their sister, to see their sister, to visit their sister, but all requests for information on their sister and all requests to visit her were declined by the victim's daughter.
They are absolutely traumatised by what has happened. They just cannot simply believe it. They are not coming to terms with it at all and that's one of the reasons why they have asked for the media to be helpful to them this evening.