Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the contributions of Ms Walshe and Mr. Hynes. All of us in this room and other Oireachtas Members have had good engagement with the organisation over the years in Glencree and at other meeting places. As Ms Walshe pointed out, it was always important that those meetings were private and confidential to ensure the people who participated regarded them as a safe space. I compliment them on their work over the years. I know from speaking to some members of the board that our guests operate a tight ship. Funding is not always easy to come by and all Oireachtas Members will appeal to Departments or statutory agencies to support the work of our guests.

Mr. Hynes pointed out clearly that there are significant legacy issues to be dealt with and Ms Walshe rightly noted how the conflict affected women in particular, that there was violence against women and that there are legacy issues in this regard. It is unfortunate that we have not gotten away from the polarisation of politics although, I hope we will. I wish both governments and all the political parties in Northern Ireland well in their talks, which commenced yesterday. We sincerely hope that early 2020 will bring about the resumption of the Assembly and Executive because people need decisions made at local level. Confidence would come from the restoration of the Assembly and Executive.

We need to deal with the legacy issues. All of us have met families who have been bereaved and never secured justice. That is true in our cities, my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan and the adjoining county of Louth where there were murders and bombings in which people lost their lives and for which nobody has been brought to justice. Those issues need to be dealt with.

I have made the point at this committee previously that everybody is getting older and families are worried that they will go to their eternal reward without seeing justice for their sibling, parent, son or daughter. People say to me that they will be gone without hearing the truth about who murdered their brother or sister. An urgency needs to be attached to this particular work at Government level and within the NGO sector.

I met a member of An Garda Síochána in the course of my constituency work yesterday. He asked me what I thought were the chances of progress in the Northern Ireland talks and I told him that I sincerely hoped there would be progress because we need it. He remarked to me that he was a young Garda recruit on 16 December 1983, the day of the murders of Garda recruit Gary Sheehan and Private Patrick Kelly during a kidnapping incident in County Leitrim. He said that we would want to ensure that we never go back to that era in our country. We do not want a vacuum in politics either.

I commend our guests on the work they do not only in our country but abroad as well. I am sure that myself and others are not as aware as we should be of the international dimension to our their work but we welcome the opportunity to listen to them today, compliment them and wish them well in the work they undertake.