Mr. Geoff Knupfer:

I thank Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, very much for the invitation to address today’s meeting. As the committee may be aware, the commission currently has 16 cases on its list of disappeared. To date, 13 victims have been recovered, 11 by the commission, leaving only three cases outstanding at this moment in time. They are: Joe Lynskey who disappeared in the summer of 1972; Columba McVeigh, who disappeared on or about 1 November 1975 and whose remains are believed to have been buried in Bragan Bog, County Monaghan and Robert Nairac, who was abducted from the Three Steps Inn, Drumintee, on 14 May 1977 and later murdered in Ravensdale, County Louth. It seems probable that his remains are buried in that general area.

As the committee have heard from Commissioner Flanagan, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic across these islands has severely hampered the operation of the commission team for the past 18 months or so. The travel of investigators to undertake face-to-face interviews and to visit potential sites was curtailed completely. In fact any activity which could not be conducted from home virtually ground to a halt. Thank goodness, hotels are now beginning to reopen and travel restrictions have largely been lifted. I am relieved to report that things on the operational side of the commission are gradually returning to some degree of normality.

Around the time we previously addressed the committee in 2018, we were in the process of making plans to commence a further search of Bragan Bog in County Monaghan to try to locate the remains of Columba McVeigh. This operation commenced in September 2018 but was suspended during the winter due to poor weather, restricted daylight hours and dangerous ground and working conditions. Work resumed in the summer of 2019 and concluded in September that year. Sadly, the remains of Columba McVeigh were not located.

Since the establishment of the commission in 1999 some 21 acres or 8.5 ha of Bragan Bog have now been searched. I should add that we are entirely satisfied that Columba was murdered and buried at Bragan and that we have not been intentionally misled in that respect. Unfortunately, his current whereabouts remain something of a mystery. It raises questions as to whether or not this is the correct location within the bog or whether for some reason or other his body could have been removed from that location. It would only have to be moved to, say, the other side of a track, and thus outside the search area, to entirely compromise the search process. As ever, we would be pleased to hear from anyone who has any information on this case, however trivial they consider it to be, it could be the vital link we are missing.

Inquiries and research into the other cases of Joe Lynskey and Robert Nairac continue. At this point in time, however, we have no fresh substantive information on either case sufficient to warrant a physical search. In fact the latter case, that of Robert Nairac, remains the only one for which we have never had sufficient information to merit a physical search. Again, we would welcome any information from the public on either of these cases.

We are particularly conscious that time marches on relentlessly. We know that some of those directly involved in these events have passed away in recent years. Others, we believe, might well be reluctant to engage because their families, friends or neighbours are totally unaware of their involvement in these sad events some 40 or 50 years ago. Despite this we would urge anyone with any relevant information, to please contact the commission directly as a matter of urgency or, if needs be, indirectly.

This is an entirely humanitarian process and we really do need help to return these lost souls to their loved ones for Christian burial. I remind everyone that since the inception of the commission in 1999, no one has ever been interviewed as a suspect, arrested, charged or convicted as a result of information that was passed to it on the disappeared. It is well known that such information can only be used to recover and repatriate victims. The commission is expressly forbidden by law to pass information on to other individuals or organisations.

In 2019, an anonymous donor put up the sum of US $60,000 by way of a reward for information which results in the recovery of one or more of the victims.

That reward has not been claimed to date. Anyone who wishes to claim the reward must contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

We are aware that a recent television drama, "Bloodlands", referred to the work of the commission. It is important to clarify that this was an entirely fictional scenario. It did not relate in any way to any real commission case and the so-called "technology" deployed to locate human remains in the programme does not actually exist. The commission was not consulted prior to or during the writing of this script. However, we were made aware of the programme prior to its broadcast.

The commission is jointly funded by the Irish and UK Governments. In order to limit the commission's operational costs, the commission does not actually employ any full-time staff. A joint secretariat is provided by the staff of the Northern Ireland Office and the Department of Justice and other members of the commission work on a contractual basis or daily-rate basis only.

We continue to work very closely with the WAVE Trauma Centre. We are most grateful for the assistance they provide to the commission in its endeavours but, more importantly, for the truly remarkable level of care and support they provide to those victims of the Troubles who are on their books. We are indebted, indeed, to the CEO of WAVE, Ms Sandra Peake, and her staff.