Mr. Tim Dalton:

I thank the Chairman for inviting us to appear before this committee. We very much appreciate the interest which the committee has shown in our work. My name is Tim Dalton and I was appointed by the two Governments in 2018 as an ICLVR commissioner. I am accompanied at the meeting by Commissioner Rosalie Flanagan, who was appointed earlier this year, also by the two Governments. We are joined also by Mr. Geoff Knupfer, the commission's lead forensic scientist and investigator, who was a member of the ICLVR team that met this committee in January 2018. Mr. Knupfer has, as the need arises, worked with the commission since 2005. During this time, he has played a central role in all of the commission's work and we are grateful to him for his ready availability and for the skill and expertise he has always brought to the task. With the Chairman's agreement, both Commissioner Flanagan and Mr. Knupfer will address the committee shortly.

At the outset, I would like to acknowledge the enormous contribution made to the work of the ICLVR by my predecessor, the late Frank Murray, who most members probably knew, and also by Ms Flanagan's predecessor, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, who has retired as commissioner. Both men were members of the delegation which met this committee in 2018.

As members will know, the commission is one of the reconciliation outcomes of the Good Friday Agreement, which provided that it was essential to acknowledge and address the suffering of the victims of violence as a necessary element of reconciliation. The commission was established on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement between the Irish and British Governments signed in April 1999. That agreement was then implemented by means of legislation enacted in both jurisdictions.

One of the key features of our situation legally is that we are an independent and non-political body. Our task, in a nutshell, is to locate and return to their families the remains of individuals killed and secretly buried by the IRA in the course of the Northern Troubles. That is broadly between the early 1970s and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Our job, as I have mentioned, is simply to search for, hopefully recover and return remains. It is not our role to comment on other aspects of policy or practice relating to the Troubles.

Another key feature of our governing legislation is that it legally guarantees that any information given to us or to our agents in the course of our work must be treated as absolutely confidential and can be used only for the purpose of locating remains. This is underpinned by provisions rendering information we receive inadmissible in evidence in criminal proceedings and by placing restrictions on the disclosing of information and further restrictions on the forensic testing of human and other remains that may be found. It is important that persons who might have relevant information but might be reluctant to share it with us should know that this confidentiality rule is there and that it is strictly observed at all times since we were established.

Finally, we are happy to report the continuing support and co-operation of both Governments and of the police services on both sides, the contribution of the Department of Justice and Northern Ireland Office, NIO, personnel, the contribution of various experts and contractors we have engaged as needed over the years and the co-operation of people within the republican community who have guided us towards relevant information sources. Mr. Knupfer will speak about the cases that have been successfully concluded and those that yet remain to be finalised.

The story of the disappeared is one of the most tragic of the Troubles and we are honoured to have the opportunity of attempting to ease the pain it brought by recovering remains and returning them to their families. Once again, we are appealing for information that might help us complete our task, however insignificant that information may appear to be, and our earnest request is that this distinguished committee would lend its support to that appeal. I will now ask Commissioner Flanagan to address the committee.