Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

When we look down the list it brings back the horror of what it was all about. My colleague referred to thugs and murderers. Nowadays we would probably say "radicalised young men who did some horrendous things."

I cannot begin to imagine what it meant to the families for whom the long wait was resolved when the bodies of victims were recovered to at least have the remains of a body and a place to go to.

I have to hand a list of names, which appears to be a rather cold document.

We are referring to people, for the most part young men, who were taken from their homes to some dark and lonely corner knowing all the time that their lives were going to be extinguished at the end of the trip. I frequently think back on these people. Every time I hear mention of the commission's work, the horror of it all comes back. I cannot begin to express my appreciation for what the commission has done.

To those who were the perpetrators of these atrocities and came forward to assist the commission, I will use whatever bit of charity I have and say "Thank you". I thank them for ending the families' long suffering. To lose a child, brother, sister, husband, wife or, as happened in some cases, mother is traumatic, but these families do not know where their loved ones are. The commission has recovered bodies in bogs and dark, lonely and desolate places.

I agree with my colleague. Robert Nairac was a serving British soldier. Some say that what happened was fair and people were entitled to shoot him because it was war. Maybe they were, maybe they were not. I will not get into that today. However, his parents were entitled to his body.