Sir Kenneth Bloomfield:

I join Mr. Frank Murray in thanking the committee for its invitation. It is an important opportunity to brief members on the commission's activities, hear their views and elicit their support for our ongoing efforts.

There now remain just three victims on the commission's case list. Joe Lynskey disappeared in August 1972 and is believed to be buried in the Coghalstown area of County Meath. Columba McVeigh disappeared in November 1975 and is believed to be buried in Bragan, County Monaghan. Captain Robert Nairac disappeared in May 1977, and the commission has received very little information to assist in his recovery. He is believed to be buried somewhere in the Ravensdale area of County Louth.

I should emphasise that information is crucial to the commission's work. The receipt of information is our greatest asset and the pursuit of information remains our greatest challenge. It is now over 40 years since the last three victims disappeared, and the passage of time creates obvious difficulties for accessing relevant information. I appeal to anybody with information that may help in locating the remains of any of the victims to provide it, in confidence, to the commission using our freephone number or our PO box address.

All information provided to the commission is treated as strictly confidential and it can be used only to locate and identify the remains. By law, it cannot be given to other agencies or used for prosecutions.

As commissioners we have always taken great satisfaction from the relief and solace that our work brings to the families of the disappeared. Mr. Murray and I have attended many of the funerals of the people the commission has recovered and have always been struck by how these occasions of great sadness are simultaneously occasions of joy. The families are joyful that one part of the great tragedy that has befallen them has finally ended. I have also noted how the families of the disappeared provide great mutual support for one another, even after their loved ones have been recovered. In that regard, I acknowledge with a deep sense of gratitude the tremendous support that the organisation WAVE has provided to the commission for many years and the work it has done with the victims' families.

At this point, we need further focused information to enable us to complete our mission.

We therefore appeal most earnestly to the humanitarian instincts of anyone with such information to pass it to us now through our confidential freefone number or our PO box. We are grateful to the members of the committee for facilitating this meeting today and I implore them to use whatever influence they might have to encourage people with information to come forward in confidence.

I will ask the head of our investigation team, Geoff Knupfer, to give some more information on the final three cases in the commission’s casebook. We look forward to hearing the members' views and answering any questions they may wish to put to us.