Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses very much for coming in today and for the fantastic presentations that were provided. What is going on is a huge injustice. I can only imagine what it is like for families that are really traumatised. What they have gone through is awful. Ms Urwin is completely right in saying that there has to be truth before reconciliation and, hopefully, then trust.

The trust is completely gone and that is born out of injustice and what has happened. I agree with Deputy Smith. I would like the committee to make this a priority because it is very important. I worked with a cross-community, cross-Border group previously. It was really around trauma, but it was a little bit different. What I found really interesting was that the people who came from the South were dealing with their own traumatic issues and they were listening to people from the unionist and republican sides who had been really traumatised from the point of view of living in the conflict, family members dying, and huge injustices going on. What really jumped out at me was that the people from the South had absolutely no idea about what the people in the North were going through, particularly around what we are talking about today and the injustices that have hit many families.

In a way, that model is the same as what is going on now down here. Nobody really understands the devastation and what the feeling was like down here in particular. Deputy Smith is spot on that we have to keep our foot on the pedal on this issue. We have to prioritise it. The witnesses have answered my question, particularly Ms Urwin when she spoke about what she would like the committee to do. I was not aware of the monthly meetings and I would love to be involved in those meetings. My colleague feels the same. We would love to be involved and to really push this forward. I am sure the Chair would agree with me that we want to do our utmost to try to get the truth for the families because trauma is carried on down through generations. It lasts for many generations and the impact is insidious; it is soul destroying and devastating. We have to get to the bottom of this. We have to do our utmost, and work extremely hard on it.

The only question I have is what is the first thing the witnesses would like us to work on. What is the top priority for them? Going forward, how would the witnesses see us doing that? I agree with Deputy Smith that the committee needs to write a letter.