Mr. Pádraig Ó Muirigh:

I can respond to Deputy Conway-Walsh's question. She referred to the terms of reference for any investigation. In short, those terms should be the opposite of what was provided in 1971. It was a sham process whereby the police responsibility for the investigation of crimes was usurped. There was an arrangement between the general officer command of the army and the chief constable, which meant that the use of lethal force by soldiers was investigated by the royal military police. Throughout the Ballymurphy inquest, we saw that the royal military police was involved in the falsification of statements. That became clearly apparent in the inquest.

What we need - and the Stormont House Agreement is a route to delivering it - is an independent investigation which has the appropriate powers to compel documents and witnesses. That will not happen and there will not be co-operation, for example from the Ministry of Defence, unless the investigation is established on a statutory basis. A multidisciplinary approach must be taken to the investigation. It must have access to the forensic techniques that are required for any modern police-type investigation.

The key issue is independence. The families have never had access to an independent investigation. They have a right to that and deserve it. We have a framework for the investigation in the Stormont House Agreement, but it has not been implemented. Therefore, we ask the committee members to continue to call for the British Government to implement fully its responsibilities under the Stormont House Agreement. We also ask members to oppose proposals to introduce an amnesty for deaths caused by soldiers.