Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations, which were very informative and challenging for many. People trying to seek justice for their loved ones are to be commended and supported.

I have not written an autobiography. A biography was written about me and I certainly did not say to anybody that there were people in the Prison Service or the Garda who were supportive of the IRA. What I said was that there were people in both organisations who were humane, as there were other people in those organisations who were inhumane.

There have been victims of the conflict across this island and beyond. Maybe the reason there was conflict was that victims were created by a system, by a state, through discrimination, sectarianism, inequality and wrongs across the whole system. The most disgraceful thing of all is collusion by states who are obliged to protect citizens.

I would say very strongly in relation to the killing of Ms Fullerton's father that there was collusion and that it was covered up afterwards. That is very evident. If one looks at this State, probably the thing that jumps out at me most is that when people such as the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four were imprisoned for up to 15 or 16 years, the State lobbied internationally against people who were highlighting the injustices of their imprisonment. That is what the State did in America and beyond. It went out of its way to lobby against people who tried to get justice for people who were wrongfully imprisoned.

For truth to emerge and come to the surface, the example has to come from states. It has to come from an honest endeavour to create a framework allowing people to obtain justice. To date, that has not been forthcoming. The British State, in particular, has so much to hide in relation to its involvement in collusion, including its involvement in Bloody Sunday and the Ballymurphy Massacre, as well as many other areas in the North in which it was actively involved in killing people indiscriminately because they happened to be Nationalist, Catholic or whatever. If the State is prepared to purge the wrongs of its past, that would help in many ways to open up a whole truth and reconciliation process, but it has to lead by example.

I am a Republican and I have been part of the conflict. I am one of more than 20,000 people of my persuasion who have been through the prison system as a result of the conflict. However, I am prepared openly to say what is right and proper in regard to truth and reconciliation, because that is the only way all of us will get justice. If that does not happen and people engage in covering things up, then individuals will cover up and will continue to cover up for their own reasons. For people who are involved in politics, having been involved in organisations that were involved in the conflict, there is an obligation on all of us to do everything we can to get justice for the victims and survivors as well as honouring the memory of those who lost their lives throughout that conflict. That is the way I see it happening.