The Health Service Executive has apologised to the parents of a 20-year-old man who was killed by a man with a severe psychiatric condition in a random attack.
Jimmy Loughlin was killed after a man he did not know burst through the front door of his home in Sligo in February 2018.
Richard McLaughlin was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time and attacked Mr Loughlin with a crowbar.
His trial in 2019 heard he had not taken his medication for several days and was suffering from delusions.
He was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
An inquest into Mr Loughlin's death heard that as far back as 2012 Mr McLaughlin was regarded as posing a serious danger to others.
Mr McLaughlin had been diagnosed in 2012 after barricading himself and his mother into their family home with a machete and threatening to kill them both.
Doctors viewed him then as being high risk and said he regularly failed to take his medication.
Four months before the attack on Mr Loughlin, a doctor was asked to see Mr McLaughlin urgently because of concerns he presented a danger.
In an action for damages, the family claimed that given Mr McLaughlin's history of refusing to take his medication and concerns expressed by a key worker in Focus Ireland there was a failure to take appropriate measures to ensure he did not pose a risk and a failure to admit him as an inpatient.
Instead, the family said he was simply advised to take medication and a review was ordered for three weeks' time. However, no effective system of review was carried before the attack took place in Feburary 2018.
Today, the family settled their action against the HSE. The details of the settlement were not disclosed. In court, an apology was read on behalf of the HSE by Senior Counsel Luan O'Braonán.
In the apology to Michael and Paula Loughlin, the clinical management team at HSE Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services acknowledged the untimely and tragic death of their son Jimmy and "the enormity of the personal loss to you and your family and your beloved son".
It also said: "I wish to acknowledge the shortcomings in the care of Jimmy's assailant Richard McLoughlin, as were highlighted at the inquest and the subsequent (inquest) jury verdict of unlawful killing.
"I sincerely and unreservedly apologise to you and your family for the breaches of duty in the care provided which I acknowledge and accept led to untold, upset, distress and harm to you and your family.
"On behalf of the clinical management team at HSE Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services may I express our sincere condolences to you and your family on your great loss."
John Deane O'Keefe of the victim support group Advic read a statement on behalf of Michael and Paula Loughlin which said: "On the day our son Jimmy was taken more than five years ago all our lives ended.
"To add insult to injury, the coroner's inquest found he was unlawfully killed and established shortcomings by the HSE in the managment of his assailant.
"The Clinical and Management team at Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services has today admitted breaches in the duty of care provided by the HSE and have issued an unreserved apology.
"Unfortunately, no apology will now bring our son back to his loving family. A son from whom so much was promised and yet everything was taken.
"Today the HSE should hang its head in shame."
The family solicitor, Damien Tansey, said it had taken the family several trips to the High Court to gain access to their son's assailant's medical records.
He said it had taken five years to reach this point and secure today's apology.
