Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our three witnesses and thank Ms Sandra Peake and Mr. Brian Gormally for the clarity in their presentations. We heard Ms Peake give an important presentation at the committee a number of years ago. In her concluding remarks, she spoke about the bodies of the disappeared and the three which were still, unfortunately, missing. Around that time also, the Commissioners for the Location of Victims' Remains, Mr. Murray and his colleague, addressed the committee subsequent to Ms Peake. That was an important presentation also. I proposed to the committee that we would invite the commissioners back. We have to try to maintain an awareness that any shred of information out there which might be helpful in locating those people and bringing them home to their families for Christian burial is extremely important. It is most disappointing that, after so many years, there are still three people who were abducted, killed and buried secretly who have not been located. That is deplorable. I hope we will be in a position to meet the commissioners so that they can get a message out to the public that if someone has information that he or she thinks might be of benefit, he or she should come forward.

Ms Peake mentioned early on in her presentation that the Police Ombudsman has indicated very clearly that he does not have the resources to carry out the investigations in a meaningful way. Time is going by and many of the families who want to see justice and to know what happened are getting older. With every day that passes, it is more difficult and the grief will continue to grow. It is deplorable and reprehensible that whatever funding is necessary is not provided by government to ensure that meaningful investigations are carried out as quickly as possible. All of us live in the real world and know it will not be easy to conclude such investigations. Can the witnesses indicate what the committee could recommend within a realistic framework to the British Government and the Irish Government? What amount of money is needed and what personnel resources are required? Mr. Gormally said the fact that there has not been an Executive, with justice matters devolved to it, in Northern Ireland for almost 12 months means valuable time is being lost in the carrying out of that work.

I commend the work of the witnesses' organisations. While it must be very difficult, it is important that families have organisations and representative groups to go to and to advocate on their behalf. As Mr. Gormally said, their problems and these legacy issues are unresolved and they cannot remain so.