Mr. Austin Stack:

I thank the committee for inviting us here today to give evidence. The Independent Victims and Survivors Coalition is a group that was formed to give a voice to people in the Republic of Ireland who have been most affected by the Northern Ireland Troubles. Our group is independent and non-political, and is open to all innocent victims and survivors. While we appreciate the support that has been shown to us by many individual members of the public and by various media outlets, our voices have been largely forgotten by politicians and policy makers. We feel that official Ireland has very badly let us down. Our group has come together to collectively address this imbalance and to ensure that the legacy work in relation to the Troubles does not forget or continue to ignore those innocent victims and survivors who suffered at the hands of the terrorists. We want to play our part in shaping a better Ireland, North and South, but we cannot do this if our voices continue to go unheard. In a presentation to this committee in 2015 we outlined the four main aims of our group; truth recovery; justice; support and services; and remembrance and recognition. These aims remain the same and sadly there has been little or no progress in most of the areas of concern that we raised.

I will address truth recovery first. A recent research study that I carried out among 80 victims and survivors of the Troubles has revealed some very interesting information. While it is generally recognised that there are many unsolved crimes from the Troubles, there was a 92% non-conviction rate in the sample involved, with 80% of those crimes dating back 25 years or more. Some 95% of those surveyed expressed a desire to get answers and truth. This comes against a background where those terrorists who committed these crimes have been aided and supported by both governments in living a full life and all that that entails, while those who have lived in the shadow of these crimes have not been so lucky. The victims in these cases have had no answers to their questions, have had no admissions of responsibility and will most likely never get justice for their loved ones.

In the face of such realities the survey found that 42% would readily commit to an informal justice approach to truth recovery, while 30% replied “Maybe” and only 28% definitely ruled it out. Those figures suggest that victims and survivors are more than willing to fully commit to a truth recovery process. However, the biggest obstacle to participating for those who opted for “No” or “Maybe” is the area of truth. This became very evident in the focus groups that were conducted as part of this research. Victims and survivors have very little confidence that former terrorists will have any incentive to tell the truth and many would point to my own attempt at truth recovery as an example where a victim was not dealt with in a truthful fashion by the terrorists or their political allies. In fact, many victims and survivors feel that the political organisations who are aligned to the former terrorists will never take responsibility for their actions, as evidenced recently when the murder of Tom Oliver was labelled a “political killing”. Truth is something which does not sit easily with these organisations.

It is for these reasons, as stated before the committee in 2015, that our group feels the truth recovery process, as envisaged and agreed by the Governments in the Stormont House Agreement, falls well short of meeting the needs of victims.

As stated in 2015, the following is required in order for the Stormont House Agreement to become acceptable to victims. The process of truth recovery must be victim-centred with victim representatives involved in the structures, management and oversight of the process, as envisaged by the Hass proposals. Not including the victims' voices at this level is a grave mistake and needs to be rectified by the Governments. The process of truth recovery must be done in public so that victims who have had to suffer quite publicly and who have been subjected to public denials over a long number of years can have a public admission of truth. There can be no hidden truths. The process of truth recovery must be transparent. The current proposals stop well short of giving victims all the relevant information regarding their cases. Crucially, they do not allow victims to meet with or question those supplying information or the perpetrators. In order for us to trust the process, we need to be able to test and question the evidence. Being handed a report by a third party is not acceptable and it is not truth recovery.

I turn to the matter of justice. In our evidence before this committee in 2015, we highlighted concerns on two specific issues relating to justice for victims and we asked the committee for its help and support in these areas. The first relates to remarks made by former Attorney General, Senator Michael McDowell, in which he stated to various media outlets that a Government decision was taken not to pursue historical cases from the Troubles era. At the time, we asked for clarity to be sought in relation to this matter. The second relates to our concerns about the way many of the investigations relating to crimes from the Troubles were carried out. There appears to have been a gross mismanagement of many cases and these unfortunately all seem to be quite similar in nature. We asked the committee to support us in calling for a full public inquiry into the way these investigations were carried out. No progress has been made on either of these issues. We are again asking the committee to seek clarification in relation to the first issue by asking Senator McDowell to give evidence to the committee and, secondly, to publicly endorse our call for a public inquiry into the manner in which investigations from the Troubles era were carried out. As stated to this committee in 2015 while victims were not consulted on the Good Friday Agreement and had no voice in the process, we accept, as democrats, the conditions laid out in the Agreement and what they require should there be convictions in cases that are relevant to them. This group is founded on the principal of not seeking revenge. However, our group continues to seek assurances from Government that all historical cases will continue to be vigorously investigated and prosecuted, especially as many of the victims were in the service of the State and murdered in the line of duty.

I turn to support and services. As we explained to the committee in 2015, victims of terrorism have had to deal with many issues in their lives with zero support from our Government. These issues are ongoing and affect us every day of our lives. They range from post-traumatic stress to anxiousness, panic, fear, alcoholism, mental illness, marriage break-up, and poor education outcomes. As many of these problems only come to light years after the initial trauma, the Government needs to put a structured set of supports in place for victims and survivors. We are aware that, through the reconciliation fund, the Government supports victims and survivors in Northern Ireland and we hope for parity of esteem with those groups. Supports should be centred on counselling and therapeutic needs, education needs, respite needs and supports to help victims aid the reconciliation and healing process. Our group met with officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and presented the case for such supports to them. To say that we were disappointed with the response would be an understatement. We were informed that as part of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations that there was, purposely, no provision made for Southern victims to have funding made available to them. The rationale for this, we were told, was that we could "go to the HSE" for any support that was required. Not only is this in-built level of discrimination unacceptable, it says, in effect, to Southern victims and survivors that our suffering is somehow worth less or not on a par with that of those in the North. I suggested to the committee in 2015 that it would benefit from hearing the personal testimonies of some victims as it would help inform members of the needs and supports required. Again, I invite the members to arrange for this to take place. Our group is yet again calling on the Irish Government to establish a victims forum similar to that in Northern Ireland and to end the practice of discrimination in relation to supports by opening up discussions with us on how to best achieve this support. We ask this committee to actively support us in this regard.

I turn to remembrance and recognition. Since our group last gave evidence to the committee, I am pleased to say that there has been some small progress in the area of remembrance and recognition. I am glad to be able to inform the committee that the relatives of Garda Michael Clerkin are to be presented with a posthumous Scott Medal on his behalf. His colleagues who were injured in the same heinous attack by the IRA will be similarly honoured at a ceremony in December. During the Troubles, 12 gardaí, one member of the Defence Forces and one member of the Prison Servicewere murdered while defending our State. Many civilians, such as the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and individuals, such as Senator Billy Fox and Tom Oliver in County Louth, had their lives ended by acts of terrorism. Our group is aware that many members of our security forces who served during the Troubles are now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. For the victims' families and for survivors, remembrance and recognition are very important but we have very often had to remember in a private an isolated fashion. As I previously remarked to this committee in 2015, recognising and remembering all victims and survivors equally is something the State has failed to do. Our suggestions seemed to meet with general approval when they were put to the committee in 2015 and we ask again for the committee's support in calling on the Government to award special service medals to all members of the State forces who served during the Troubles; award bravery medals to members of the State forces murdered in the line of duty, where it is not already done; open discussions with civilian victims on how to best recognise their loss or harm; reopen the Remembrance Commission; and create one national memorial for all innocent victims and members of the State forces murdered during the Troubles, at which an annual memorial service could be held.

On behalf of the Independent Victims and Survivors Coalition, I thank the committee for giving us this opportunity to address how the legacy of the Troubles has impacted and continues to impact on us. For too long, the perceived focus of the peace process has been on the perpetrators. The time has come to change this so that the focus is on the innocent victims and those who risked their lives upholding the rule of law and preserving society. We ask the committee to support our suggestions and recommendations as to how our specific needs can be dealt with in the areas of truth recovery, justice, support services, and recognition and remembrance.