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

I welcome the contributions of Reverend Karen and Mr. Lunn. As Ms Hanna and others have said, this is a particularly difficult and traumatic day for the families of the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre. We sincerely hope the findings of the inquest will bring the truth. We at this committee have often discussed with the families of victims that the least people deserve is the truth about what happened to their loved ones. We sincerely hope they will get the answers today.

Mention was again made today of the fact the British Government put out a narrative last week about an amnesty for people who committed hideous crimes. That would be a terrible reneging on an international agreement and commitment and it would be absolutely reprehensible if the British Government were to go ahead with that. It would again damage trust in politics.

Mr. Lunn referred to the Good Friday Agreement and that it being respected in all of its parts was the only way forward. If we want to get to a new, agreed Ireland and a shared island, we must honour the commitments that have been made through international agreements, especially the Good Friday Agreement and all its successor agreements, and we need to have them implemented.

Mr. Francie Molloy touched on the issue of the civic forum. As we know, the civic forum is provided for in the Good Friday Agreement under the stewardship of former First Minister, David Trimble, and the former deputy First Minister, the late Seamus Mallon. It was established in 2000. My recollection is that it has not met since 2002. It is, again, provided for in the Stormont House Agreement under the establishment of a civic advisory panel. There should be more attention paid to putting in place that civic forum because it was to deal with economic, social and cultural issues.

Mr. Lunn used the phrase "to provide a forum for non-political discussion", but that was in the context of a citizens' assembly. I do not hear much attention being paid to the need to set up the civic forum that has been provided for since 1998. My understanding is this is a matter for the assembly and the Executive. Perhaps Reverend Karen would offer her view on that, or in subsequent discussion with Mr. Lunn perhaps she would mention to him that I believe much more attention should be paid to putting in place the civic forum that is provided for and which would, as mentioned by him, provide that non-political forum for discussing issues that concern the people every day. As Mickey Brady and others said, what concerns people is welfare, health, jobs, education and so on. We need those issues being discussed by the non-elected people as well. In the interests of time, I will conclude on that point.