Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Morrow for being so frank, even though he is painting an extremely depressing picture in that, after all these years and all the initiatives, the organisations, the units, the funding and everything that has gone into it, we do not seem to be further advanced. From what Dr. Morrow is saying, there does not appear to be that much hope of further progress. Some of us are involved with the issue of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and it is very difficult to listen to the relatives of the victims. We are now hearing from the grandchildren of those who lost their lives in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, so how soon is "soon" because we have been hearing that for so long?

The current system in the North does not help. I am not talking about the political impasse, which is one aspect, and Brexit will not help, but what is happening now with prisoners and the revoking of licences. The parole commissioners system is one of the most unjust systems one could have in a democracy and what happened with the Boston tapes would not lend reassurance to those who want to tell their stories.

It strikes me from what Dr. Morrow said that the guarantee of non-prosecution across the board to everybody, not just in terms of cross-Border co-operation but across the Irish Sea co-operation, is shelving reconciliation just to get the stories out and getting rid of the national security question. It is mind-boggling that they come out with this issue of national security yet we know there is so much infiltration of all the organisations that they know everything even before the people have decided what they will do.

Going back to the international aspect, which we discussed previously, and giving Cambodia and Rwanda as examples, is there anything to learn from that?

Also, while we are waiting on the stories to come out, are the witnesses examining the effect of the atrocities on women and families over the more than 30 years of the conflict? We may not be getting the stories out but we can examine the effects of the atrocities on everybody.