Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the proposal by my colleague, Senator Darragh O'Brien, to amend the Order of Business. The Commissions of Investigation Act was not intended to provide for purposes of political obfuscation. The issues in this case can be dealt with purely by ascertaining the facts from those who know precisely what went on.

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate at an early stage on the United Nations. I raise the matter in the context of Rwanda and the commemoration this week of the tragic events of 20 years ago when 800,000 to 900,000 people were savagely murdered in a genocide as the world stood idly by and the United Nations, to its discredit, did nothing. I commend General Dallaire's book to anyone with an interest. He was the Canadian general in charge of the United Nations force in the country at the time. He was unable to obtain approval to intervene to stop the killings.

He subsequently had a mental breakdown and a great deal of this is in his book.

In that regard I would also like to recall a good friend of mine who was Minister of Gender and Family Promotion in Rwanda, the late Senator Aloisea Inyumba. I was in her company two or three years ago before she died when Bill Clinton, the former United States President, told her how sorry he was for his failure to intervene in that bloody, appalling episode in Rwanda. He proffered that it was the biggest regret of his presidency. She was probably one of the most principled and patriotic politicians it was ever my privilege to meet. What was in her was probably what was in the founding fathers of this State who had that patriotic zeal for service and a lack of self-interest. If we could all today be imbued with some of that spirit, this country would be a better place and we would not be setting up commissions of inquiry either.