Mr. Peadar King:

If you have time, Chairman, the three of us might make final comments on a few issues that were raised. Deputy Eric Byrne spoke about the elections. Of course, elections have taken place, most recently last November. There are questions about the veracity of the elections. Various international bodies question the legitimacy of the elections and the process under which they take place. The difficulty is that if one challenges the legitimacy of the elections, whoever is elected does not have the legitimacy of the people's vote. There is that mismatch between the governing parties, the elected President and the people. It is a form of democracy. It is a limited and, in my view, flawed form that is operating. It was in that context I made the comments about the democratic republic.

To refer to Deputy Crowe's opening comments about positive things, I take the point he made. Clearly, in every situation there are developments that must be acknowledged. Equally, however, unless we recognise the misery and harshness of life for the civilian population as our starting point and unless we confront that in all its awfulness, we will not work towards building the type of positive outcomes to which the Deputy aspires. The statement that I made today, and perhaps even the statement I was making in the film, reflects that desire to draw public attention to the bleakness of the current situation with a view to garnering public attention and some type of determination to try to build and move away from that bleak situation.

Senator Norris has left but his comments about Roger Casement were well made. There is a reference to Roger Casement in the film. Casement's report from the Congo prior to 1902 is regarded as the first human rights report ever written. Irish people should be proud that one of the great iconic figures from Irish history was the author of one of the first human rights reports. His report is available online if anybody wishes to see it.

Members made a number of other comments, but I do not have the time to address them. I hope that is sufficient.