Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will start by welcoming the ambassador from Estonia and the Estonian-Irish friendship group. Estonia has been a great friend to Ireland, particularly in advising in areas of cybersecurity. The willingness of the Estonians to host delegations from Ireland is something for which I am personally extremely grateful, as are those I brought to Estonia. It is great to be able to visit a country that is so open and willing to share the learning it has had in the area of cyber.

My colleague, Senator Ward, adverted to the Stardust and he is 100% correct. It was wonderful to hear the Taoiseach yesterday offer a State apology. Is it not time that as a State, we stepped back and looked at all the other things we forced people to fight this country for to get justice? Whiddy Island is one that comes to mind. Some 50 people lost their lives on Whiddy Island and there are still questions unanswered. There are still two unidentified bodies from Whiddy Island that have not been looked after. Again, I go back to the Defence Forces and Jadotville. People will say there was an independent review of Jadotville. We dispute the fact that it was independent. It did not have an independent chair from outside the jurisdiction. We need to go back. Why do we force our citizens to fight this country until they are on their deathbeds? Many of us in this room will be aware of people who fought the whole way through. Indeed, they negotiated with one particular cancer victim on her deathbed two days before she died. What sort of heartless people have we got in the State Claims Agency who would force people to fight to their last breath? Is there hope that we will all bloody well die before we get a resolution?

At the end of the day, this State owes a duty of care to its citizens. Senator Ward was correct when he pointed out that in the case of thalidomide, we have 40 people left out of how many when we started? As Senator Ward quite rightly said, their mothers carry a guilt they should not. It is time we stepped back and started to put right some of the horrible things we have done to our citizens.