Ms Margaret Urwin:

Thank you, Chairman, for inviting us today and good morning. Justice for the Forgotten was formed in 1996 to represent and support the bereaved families and survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. We have gradually extended our remit over the years to include the families of other bomb attacks in the South during the 1970s, including the Dublin bombings of 1972 and 1973 as well as the Belturbet, Dundalk and Castleblayney bombings. We also represent the families of the Miami Showband and several families whose relatives were killed in single incident attacks. Justice for the Forgotten, JFF, is the only dedicated organisation working with victims in this jurisdiction and is best placed to deliver services that are supportive and sensitive to the needs of victims. Our services are available to anyone bereaved or injured as a result of the conflict, regardless of political or religious affiliation.

Our work in the past included assisting the efforts of the late Judge Henry Barron during his inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan and other bomb attacks. Justice for the Forgotten made 52 submissions to Judge Barron during the course of his investigations; we carried out our own inquiries and we interviewed people with information. Uniquely for an NGO, we were authorised by the judge to suggest lines of inquiry for the inquiry to pursue, signifying our authoritative knowledge and experience of the cases before him.
During the lifetime of the Remembrance Commission, we assisted the State extensively by identifying and locating many victims' families and survivors. We were responsible for channelling at least €1.5 million of the commission's fund to victims. The Remembrance Commission was established as a result of the recommendations of the late former victims' commissioner, John Wilson, in his report, A Place and a Name, published in August 1999.
We were centrally involved in the procurement of permanent memorials in the State. We approached and liaised with councils and the Remembrance Commission in this regard. To their credit, the councils contacted responded enthusiastically, providing partial funding for the memorials, the core funding for which came from the funds of the Remembrance Commission. As a result of these efforts, memorials were erected in Belturbet, Castleblayney, Dundalk and in Dublin for the Miami Showband. Memorials had already been secured in Talbot Street and Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, and in Monaghan for the 1974 bombings. A memorial for the victims of the 1972 and 1973 bombings was set into the pavement in Sackville Place, with financial assistance from Dublin Bus. The unveiling ceremonies of these memorials were very moving occasions, when the relief and joy on the faces of the families that their loved ones were being given official recognition was evident, and whole towns came out to commemorate with the families. This experience brought home to us the importance of physical structures of remembrance, not only to families and survivors, but to the wider communities in which they are placed. We provided counselling and holistic therapies where requested, but we found that the focus of the majority of those we represent was in recovering the truth of what happened to their loved ones.
We were funded for a decade by the Government from 2000 to 2009. When the Government withdrew our funding, and we failed to procure an alternative despite strenuous efforts on our part, we were forced to close our doors in July 2010. However, the Pat Finucane Centre, based in the North, came to our rescue and managed to secure limited funding for us as part of its organisation under the PEACE III programme. As a result, we were able to re-open in December 2010. The funding covers just one salary, travel and room hire expenses. Funding to run a Dublin office was refused because we were and are outside of Special EU Programmes Body's remit. This limited funding will end in June 2014. Much work remains to be done.
Although the Barron inquiries provided a considerable amount of new information, giving much solace and comfort to the families concerned, the outstanding thorny issue remaining, ten years after the publication of the Dublin and Monaghan report, is the failure of the British Government to co-operate in any meaningful way with Judge Barron's investigations. In his report on Dublin and Monaghan, the judge said that the value of information provided by the NIO was reduced because of the reluctance to make original documents available and London's refusal to supply other information on security grounds had resulted in the scope of his report being limited. The British Government has, so far, failed to comply with two Dáil motions passed unanimously on 10 July 2008 and 17 May 2011, calling on it to make the undisclosed files available to an independent, international judicial figure for assessment. Over the past year we have been in discussions with the British ambassador on how a way forward might be found, but despite some hopeful signs, no positive outcome has yet been achieved. We hope to continue our discussions with him in the coming months.
We had a significant breakthrough recently when the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland accepted that our complaint regarding the RUC's investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings fell within its remit. Its historical directorate's investigation is due to begin this year. Another single incident case, whose family we represent, was also accepted by the police ombudsman in November. We have submitted a complaint on behalf of the Dundalk families and are awaiting a decision on that case. We will be submitting further complaints in respect of the other bomb attacks in the coming months. The Miami Showband case was accepted more than a year ago, but those murders occurred within the boundary of Northern Ireland. We view the investigation of deaths that occurred in this jurisdiction by a Northern Ireland statutory body as very significant progress, as the remit of the historical enquiries team was confined to Northern Ireland.
We are liaising with An Garda Síochána about the Belturbet bombing case, for which the chief superintendent for the Cavan and Monaghan division has recently taken direct responsibility. I confirmed this morning that I will be meeting with him next week to discuss the Belturbet bombing. The Garda Síochána in Monaghan is also reviewing another single incident murder case, at our request, for any new evidential opportunities.
Justice for the Forgotten, along with the Pat Finucane Centre, has been centrally involved in researching archival material over many years in both the National Archives of Ireland and the UK National Archives in Kew. Some of the results of this research have been included in Anne Cadwallader's best-selling book, Lethal Allies, on which she will brief the committee shortly.
A decade of commemorations has begun during which the centenary of many key historical events in our country will rightly be remembered. This year also marks the fortieth anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in which 34 people lost their lives, the greatest loss of life in a single day of the entire Troubles. We intend organising special events to commemorate this significant anniversary and would welcome any suggestions or assistance the committee may be able to provide in order to make this a truly memorable one for the families and survivors.
As I mentioned earlier, the cost of funding a Dublin-based office was refused under the PEACE III programme because we are outside of the Special EU Programmes Body's geographical remit. From the outset, that body's remit was confined to the social and economic development of the six northern counties and the six counties immediately south of the Border. However, although we recognise that the development of economic and social conditions are very important, the most tragic and continuing legacy of the past is the impact on families and communities of the loss of life of family members and friends and the injuries and trauma suffered by survivors. We face a situation at the end of June 2014 when the PEACE III programme ends, of once again being placed in the position in which we found ourselves in 2010. PEACE IV funding will not come on stream before 2016, which may provide us again with limited funding. A new service, the Victims and Survivors Service, has been established in Northern Ireland, which will provide funding for victims' organisations within Northern Ireland. However, it has no remit to fund victims organisations outside of Northern Ireland.
We are bound to ask why it is considered that victims of the same conflict, but who were killed outside the territory of Northern Ireland, have a lesser need than those killed within its boundaries. Some 120 people were killed in the Republic during the Troubles - 51 of them in Dublin alone. Additionally, some families who lost loved ones in Northern Ireland subsequently moved to the Republic. The Victims Commissioner for Northern Ireland, Ms Kathryn Stone, invited us, along with representatives from the Tim Parry and Jonathan Ball Foundation in Britain, who are in the same difficult position as ourselves, to meet with her recently to discuss our funding problems. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister and the Victims and Survivors Service.

The Victims' Commissioner expressed her concern at the exclusion of organisations outside of Northern Ireland from funding opportunities. At a recent conference in the Stormont Hotel, Mr. Kenny Donaldson of Innocent Victims United appealed for equal funding opportunities to be made available to victims' organisations in the Republic of Ireland and Britain.

While we acknowledge the funding and support we received from the Government in the past, there now seems to be a general amnesia, in the media, in civil society and even in Government, that there are victims of the Troubles in this State. While we readily accept that the great majority of victims are within the North, nevertheless it has to be recognised that victims here have continuing needs too. It is only fair to point out that the Government does fund the Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains and also provides assistance for a defined number of injured survivors who need medical aids such as prostheses, hearing aids, etc., but the greatest need for the majority of victims is in the area of truth recovery.

Any truth recovery process has to be inclusive of all victims of the Troubles. While it is our view that the proposals of Drs. Haass and O'Sullivan were constructive and worthwhile, the amnesia to which I have referred is, unfortunately, evident in the proposed Haass agreement of 31 December 2013 as denoted by its final published draft. The draft tells us that the proposed historical investigations unit would "take forward the remaining caseload of the HET and the conflict-related cases before the PONI". This fails to take into account the many cases in the Republic which would not be eligible to be brought before police ombudsman and the remit of the HET has, since its inception, been limited to Northern Ireland.

The response by Amnesty International to the failure of the Haass talks reinforces this sense of amnesia. The executive director of Amnesty International Ireland said: 'We are disappointed the parties failed to reach an agreement on dealing with the past, but determined to press for truth and justice for all victims in Northern Ireland." He should, of course, have said: "for all victims of the conflict." We appeal to the committee that, in the event of the Haass proposals being taken forward in the future, to make representations to the relevant parties to ensure that all victims are treated equally. This may necessitate the passage of specific legislation.

On the issue of funding, where there are structures in place including the North-South Ministerial Council, the British-Irish Council and the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, it cannot pose an insurmountable problem to find a way to provide very modest funding for a small organisation in order that it may continue the work I have outlined to the committee today. Dublin, Westminster and Stormont should be able to reach agreement on this issue. We appeal to the committee to use its influence in this area also.

Failure to treat all victims equally is discriminatory and, in the absence of equality, talk of reconciliation rings very hollow indeed.