Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been a long day. If I was to try to work out a common theme, I think it would be the need for justice and for people’s voices to be heard and listened to attentively. It is all about a process to deal with our collective past in a way that does not dominate the present and prevent people living in the present. The common denominator among all the witnesses here is that people’s’ voices would be heard, that questions would be answered and that there would be investigations. It has come across in the discussions that there are conflicting requests from people. Some want to see prosecutions and sentencing while others are content with answers and the investigation. How are conflicting demands or requests from people worked through?

Reference was made to the security forces, which is another conflict situation. There are members of the security forces who gave their lives in the protection of their communities and we also heard of those in the security forces who were involved in collusion.

In regard to Justice for the Forgotten meeting the British ambassador, and perhaps the British Embassy might be aware of this committee’s discussions today, was a reason given for the cancellation of the meeting and was there any follow-up? Is Justice for the Forgotten anxious for another meeting with the British ambassador? This should be on the record today.

Another common thread from today’s evidence is the delays. There are times when the Irish Government has been forward and progressive and the Northern Ireland or the UK Government have not. There have also been times when our Government has fallen behind on this.

The safety of solicitors who work on these cases is also an issue for concern. Perhaps Mr. O’Connor would elaborate on this. For those of us who have visited the North, in particular the prisons, there is no doubt that there is very little faith in the legal system in the North. Prisoners remain on remand for lengthy periods.

We see revocation of licences based on closed information so that prisoners cannot defend themselves. I see us storing up cases for the future. There will be more and more cases which may have to go to Europe. On the notion of national security being an issue, I note that on some issues, we were bounced from the Secretary of State to the Minister for Justice and Equality. It appeared to me a very easy cop out to say: "The ball is not in my court, it is in yours", which was then repeated. I do not know how one addresses that.