Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for having to leave, but I had to deal with legislation in the Seanad. I heard the initial contributions on Ballymurphy and Bloody Sunday. I was in Belfast during the summer and met Kevin Winters and his legal team. I was inside his office and saw his filing cabinets, which contain the history of the Northern Troubles ranging from Bloody Sunday to collusion, from murders by the British army to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. I said to him that I hoped he had copies of his files, because there is no doubt that somebody somewhere would like to make his files disappear as well. On my trip I also saw the murals about Ballymurphy and the horrific story of Joan Connolly, who was shot in the face while walking, shot again at point blank range and died, leaving behind eight children. That human story, and the other stories, tell us that justice must be given to the 57 children who were left without a parent.

One of the most telling documents that I have come across in recent times was uncovered by the BBC's "Panorama" programme and related to two civil servants who stated that the Prime Minister was anxious that the next unit should operate within the law. That comment was in relation to what are best described as murder gangs, who were British soldiers dressed up in civilian clothing who drove around west Belfast and shot citizens or civilians. It is quite clear that the British Prime Minister knew that the previous incarnation of the Military Reaction Force operated outside the law, because one would not have to ask that the new unit operate within the law if one understood that the previous unit had operated within the law. That shows how high up corruption went in the political system.

The British ambassador has often attended the House for motions in the Dáil, Seanad and elsewhere in regard to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. I have asked him, and asked some of the people who like to attend the British ambassador's tea party to ask him, for the files. If I was a country that had been accused of the biggest mass murder in the history of this State, I would like to clear my name. In such a case I would give every file I had and say that we had nothing to do with it, but we all know that the contrary is most likely true.

It is 18 years since the Good Friday Agreement and here we are. I agree with Mr. John Kelly that the powers that be are waiting for people to die. They are winding out the clock and hoping that not only will the families die off but the perpetrators will die off without ever seeing the inside of a courthouse. That is basically what the Governments are saying. Mr. Kevin Winters said to me that one in three of the victims in the North were killed either by the loyalist paramilitaries or by the British army. The loyalist paramilitaries could not have existed without the assistance and support of the British State, through either a consistent policy or a policy that was nodding agreement. That is a terrible indictment. It sounds like South America. We hear about murder gangs in South America during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and that is essentially what was happening in the North of Ireland. What they want to happen is for the files to be released on some bright and breezy day in 50 years' time, thus ensuring that justice never comes for the victims' organisations present and the other organisations. We must have justice, because there are thousands of victims, and I refer not only to those who lost loved ones. I believe future generations will also be victims, because they suffered the trauma through their parents.