Ms Sandra Peake:

I had made a note to say that intergenerational trauma is very prevalent and that its impact on the next generation is not recognised.

People present to WAVE from the age of six. How sad. The Good Friday Agreement will be 20 years old next year so such children were born well after it came into place but they live in homes where the impact is evident on a daily basis. I was in a house recently where the children were still locked upstairs at night with a metal gate. Those children are living in a fortified house 19 years after the Good Friday Agreement came into place but the parent is still afraid. There is no doubt the impact on parents affects children. We saw children last year from the age of five and this year from the age of six. That is very young for children to be presenting at a trauma centre and requiring support. Senator Black's point is well made in that regard.

I attended consultations families had with Sir Kenneth Bloomfield in 1998 and then we come forward then to the Bradley-Eames group. I sat with families in WAVE making the case to the Bradley-Eames team in respect of what should happen. We also presented papers to Dr. Haass and Meghan O'Sullivan on what should happen. We are now into the Stormont House phase. We were very disillusioned when the Fresh Start agreement came out and there was no mention of legacy. That was a further hurt.

People struggle. Some people are weary now. People feel they will never get the answers they want. Sadly, we are burying people all the time who are dying without getting the answers they want and families are left behind to deal with that. The Stormont House Agreement needs to be implemented. They need to get it right and to do it as soon as possible. They should not expect us to wait. It is very unfair. Mr. Gormally made the point that we are blighting the next generation and we are blighting the peace process. It has to be done. It is not going to go away. If members think time and mortality will sort it out that will not happen because we are just passing it to the next generation. Mr. Maskey spoke about his grandchildren. The families of the disappeared are a good example. I used to deal a lot with the mothers but there is only one mother of the disappeared left because, sadly, the rest have died. We are now dealing with the siblings and they have said if the issue is not addressed in their lifetimes, it will be passed to their nephews and nieces to deal with. Is it right that we should ask nephews and nieces or grandchildren to deal with what happened? It should be dealt with now. There is a big issue in terms of getting Stormont House agreed and moving and there is an issue for us in the context of providing a meaningful, victim-centred process for the bereaved, something that works for them. Regarding the injured, we ask the committee to do whatever it can to assist them. They need help too.