Mr. Austin Stack:

Deputy Crowe asked about incompetence in how the investigations were handled. From our view, it is more than incompetence and poor Garda techniques. Approximately three weeks ago I sat down with four different families, and three of the cases were extremely similar in terms of how hard material evidence went missing, eyewitnesses were not asked to take part in identification parades, give statements or come to court, and fingerprints went missing. We represent a small group of people, perhaps 20 families, and when four of them sat down together we found that three of them had had very similar experiences in the 1970s and 1980s.

I do not believe there was specific collusion, but I believe that perhaps individuals within An Garda Síochána or the Prison Service were supportive of the IRA. Deputy Ferris mentions this in his autobiography. He states that members of the Prison Service in Portlaoise were supportive of the IRA at the time. We know that was there. I believe the Government did not want to open up this can of worms because if it had to go there it would have seen that individuals in State agencies and forces were supportive of the IRA.

Several of our cases have been to the serious crime review team, which is the cold case unit, and we have all had similar experiences. We found it to be a complete waste of time. Gardaí who are investigating gardaí and what happened back in the 1970s and 1980s do not want to be seen to cast aspersions on the investigations of their colleagues. We are taking this up in a legal forum in some of our cases. With regard to answers and solutions, there is a requirement for a public inquiry - I do not know whether it should be collective - into how some of the investigations were conducted by the Garda at the time.

With regard to what Deputy Pringle said on the public nature of truth commissions and the truth recovery process, most of those in our group have suffered public denials. Certain individuals or groupings carried out the murders of our relatives and loved ones. We have had to suffer in public with these denials. If the truth is going to come it must come in public. We can negotiate how this is done. We are not bitter or vengeful people, and we do not want to see people dragged in sackcloth and ashes, as Deputy Adams famously stated, but we do want some sort of public admission. These can be negotiated with us. As Mr. Kelly stated, we just want to be asked our views on this. Nobody has asked us. We have had the Stormont House Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement, but nobody has come to us and asked us our opinions on this or how it should work. This is the key. If we are looking for solutions and answers, we must be brought into the loop and spoken to. I echo Mr. Kelly's views on this. We all come from a very similar space on these issues.