Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland report, which I absolutely welcome, confirms what a lot of us presumed was the situation, but without the details, for a long time. I have attended previous presentations from people who have done a lot of study on this issue of collusion. They have suggested that there were major abuses of policing and of authority in the North of Ireland during all of the Troubles period, and since.

Like everybody else here, I support the position that has been adopted by the Government on the proposal for a statute of limitations. It is one thing that there is all-party agreement in Northern Ireland, but I was very surprised that any government in Westminster made the proposal when all of the parties were against it.

We need to go and investigate what happened. That has been promised a good few times, but to do that we must get sight of all of the files including all the MI5 files. There is no doubt in my mind not only that was there collusion from police, but that it went to the heart of policy in London in MI5. Until we get to the bottom of what really happened, I do not believe that people will have faith in justice and security issues in that jurisdiction.

It is worth noting here today that since 1998, relatively few prisoners have gone to prison for anything that happened prior to the ceasefires. I can think of one such person because he was a cause of me getting involved in this whole issue all over again back in 2011, and that is Gerry McGeough who was convicted for something that happened in 1982. We have never seen this happen on the other side. To my knowledge, no loyalist, no military and no police were ever convicted of pre-ceasefire events. I understand that there are a handful of others who have been convicted. I believe that even-handedness and fairness is absolutely vital in the enforcement of the law.

I also wish to raise another present issue where there is a huge inequality, particularly if we are not going to try or convict anybody else. It relates to those who were convicted and let out under the Good Friday Agreement. They are not free; they are out on licence. If they commit a crime that has nothing to do with violence - I will not say an ordinary crime, but a crime not associated with any paramilitary activity - their licence can be revoked without another trial. Again, we see a huge inequality of treatment here. This is a real live issue in 2022.

The Minister knows, and I know, that the role of double agents in Northern Ireland is as alive today as it was during the Troubles. We are aware of the McFadden affair, which still has to come to trial. It is a clear case of an agent operating on a double agent basis. I find it totally objectionable that the State is involved in actually encouraging people to get involved in violence.

Another issue I wish to raise is around legacy. Many people have referred very thoroughly to the historic issues, but I have only a limited number of minutes here. As the Minister will be aware, in the separated regime on the republican side in Northern Ireland - I have been on about this endless times and the Minister has heard my representations - strip searching is still going on, otherwise called "full body" searching, even though they know there are no drugs in the republican wing, and anything else they might be bringing in could be ascertainable, as happened in Portlaoise Prison, by other means. The Minister is aware that there is controlled movement in the prisons, whereby no more than four can come out on the landings, even though there are only 12 or 13 such prisoners in total there. The Minister will also know that stop and search has been going on at a very high level with certain families, and family bank accounts have been closed down meaning they cannot get their social welfare payments. Is the Minister aware that there are delays of up to eight years? People are either spending time on remand or on very strict bail conditions whereby they must sign on every day, and effectively they are not able to take up employment. People are waiting up to eight years for a trial. These are all legacy issues. They are a carryover of the treatment that always seems to fall on one side, from the time of the Troubles.

We need to go forward. I have spent the past 11 years trying to encourage people who might have been of a different view to mine that the only way forward is through politics, negotiation, dialogue and peaceful methods. At times I find that one of the biggest barriers to doing so is the behaviour of certain sections. I would very much divide the authorities between the secret authorities and the secret police who answer to London and MI5, as opposed to community policing which tends to operate to a much more open and better community standard. We have a lot of outstanding issues.

A truth commission should be set up, totally separate from the prosecution issue. Everybody is against a statute of limitations, but a truth commission should also be set up rather than relying on an ombudsman to do something on a hotchpotch basis compared to a full truth commission. If there is going to be a truth commission, we need to get sight of the MI5 files and all of the security files held by the British for the period, even though I have a funny feeling that these files would really shock people with a certain reading of events in Northern Ireland if they could get sight of them.

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