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

I will speak first. Senator McGreehan is in the Leinster House complex and will also be contributing.

I welcome the Minister's continued engagement with this committee and his remarks this morning. In the engagement we had with the Ballymurphy families, there was such a palpable sense of relief when the coroner's verdict was announced and the outcome of that inquest showed very clearly that ten entirely innocent people were shot dead in that massacre. These issues need to be addressed with the utmost urgency and I fully appreciate that it is not straightforward, unfortunately.

The Minister stated that every family must have access to truth and justice. So many families across this island have been denied truth and justice. I welcome the Taoiseach's confirmation that a number of legacy issues, including in the context of atrocities committed in my constituency and elsewhere, we raised during his recent bilateral meeting with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Boris Johnson.

I also welcome the Minister's confirmation that these issues were also discussed at the recent British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Importantly, the Minister stated that victims and survivors are central to all these discussions and that intense engagement is needed if we are to achieve true reconciliation.

The Minister will have heard me on many occasions, including at committee meetings, on Question Time and during debates in the Dáil, talking about some of the atrocities that impacted on my immediate home area almost half a century ago. I am referring to the bombing in Belturbet in December 1972 and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974. Unfortunately, no one was brought to justice for any of those heinous crimes. As the Minister knows, on three occasions, in 2008, 2011 and 2016, the Dáil and the Oireachtas unanimously passed well-crafted motions. They were crafted responsibly. We called on the British Government to give access to all papers and files pertaining to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings to an independent eminent international legal person. Over the course of the last Dáil a support group was formed in the Oireachtas for the families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. The group included the former Deputy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Deputy Seán Crowe and me. We have had considerable contact with the Department and appreciate the access we have had in the context of those atrocities. The Department kept us updated on what was not happening in respect of the unanimous requests from the Oireachtas. Will the Minister provide an update on the position? Have the British indicated in any way that they will respond to the motions that were passed unanimously by our sovereign Parliament? We know of the Glenanne gang. There is plenty of evidence from state papers in Britain relating to these atrocities. Recently, I put on the record of the Dáil information that had come to me from the University of Nottingham regarding collusion in Northern Ireland in respect of the bombing at Belturbet in December 1972. There is irrefutable evidence.

We all know about the age cohort of many siblings and parents of people who were victims of those atrocities. They are concerned that everyone is getting older. The truth has not been established. I have campaigned with many of the families in my constituency to try to get the truth and to get their voices listened to. The Minister rightly stated that families cannot continue to wait. Unfortunately, they have waited for decades and there is no sign of the truth. The British Government, if it is serious about having the Border instalment of the Stormont House Agreement, could show good intent by giving some indication on the request of our Parliament for access to all the papers pertaining to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings to be given to an independent international legal person. The Minister might provide an update on that.

There is one other matter. In recent days, members of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly had an engagement with the British ambassador. One of the points that I and others raised relates to the need to try to keep families updated on what is happening or not happening. In many instances, families, survivors and people who have lost loved ones were not contacted enough by statutory agencies or Departments. If this process is to be intensified and if we are to make much-needed progress, then the families have to be continually updated on what efforts the Government, Departments and statutory agencies are making to try to get the truth and to try to get justice for these families. The issue needs to be treated with the utmost urgency.