Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I would like to start by welcoming the families here and echoing the words of the rest of the committee in relation to the steadfastness they have shown, the journey they have walked and the dignity they have walked it with despite the obstacles put in their way.

I support the motion put forward by Deputy Tóibín on seeking legal advice. Such legal advice could be useful in relation to other matters in the Good Friday Agreement as well and the wider Brexit conversation. That is a good idea. Also, it would be useful as a topic for this committee to look at in general but that is a conversation for the committee.

It strikes me that the families here and the families of Ballymurphy are not alone. The Bloody Sunday families in Derry had to walk a similar journey from the Widgery tribunal to the Saville inquiry. We have seen obstruction by the British Government at every turn. We only need look at inquiries such as the Stevens inquiries and the Cory inquiry where hard drives were seized and destroyed in the middle of an inquiry. Every effort is being made to prevent inquiries or tribunals happening and, when they do happen, to obstruct them even if it is by sabotage, by arson or by theft of hard drives. The lengths to which the British Government has gone to prevent the truth coming out are quite incredible. Now, of course, we see the British Government trying to use the system, in terms of the amnesty and such like, to prevent again the truth coming out. We have the Stormont House Agreement. We have structures in that agreement that we should be using to help to establish the truth so that no family has to walk that lonely route, as one of the other Deputies said. No other family has to wait 50 years or should be left waiting another 50 years.

One of the points I have been making is that it is not only the British Government we should be focusing on. I do not want to let the British Government off the hook, but the Irish Government is a co-guarantor of the Belfast Agreement. One of the key parts in the Stormont House Agreement is the Independent Commission for Information Retrieval, ICIR. Something like this requires legislation in London and in Dublin and I do not see the progress coming from Dublin on this. We need both but in reality we can start pushing ahead. We can start having the conversation on what we want our legislation to look like and what we want our legislation to do. The process of pre-legislative scrutiny that we use in this House allows those conversations to happen, allows a broad picture of legislation to be put out there and enables committees and expert witnesses to engage with it. If we can begin that process, it gives us moral leadership here to say to London that it should get on with it and start doing what it needs to do for the families, for justice and to uphold its end of the agreements it made. We should be looking at the legal route, as Deputy Tóibín has suggested, but we also need to show our own leadership on this. Other members and some of the families here have spoken about the need to be proactive and this is an example of how the Irish Government can be proactive in the need to confront. It is an example of how we can use our action as a form of moral leadership to confront the British Government about its failure of leadership and action. The Government needs to be shown to be proactive and we as a committee need to be making those demands of the Government and be proactive in making them. There are other things that the Government can do to be proactive such as ensuring the funding, as has been pointed out. It is a key part of making sure these things work. We need to make sure they are funded properly. These are things we can do.

Without trying to excuse the British state or let it off the hook for its failures time and again, we as a committee also need to be asking the Irish Government what is it doing, where its moral leadership on this matter is, where the consultation is on what the ICIR will look like, and where the heads of the Bill are so that we can at least have a conversation even if it is like the question of a border poll on which everyone is saying we need to be better prepared. We need to be better prepared for the ICIR. Part of the role of this committee should be thrashing these ideas out, as we do with any other piece of legislation.

I do not really have any questions. Many of the questions I would have asked have already been answered. I will wrap up now. Essentially, the point I want to make quite strongly is that the British state has failed so many families who were seeking justice but we cannot let the Irish State off the hook. As a committee, we need to be proactive in demanding the Irish Government is proactive.