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

I thank the members of the commission who are here with us and the staff behind them for their work. To echo the words of Senator Black, their work is important. As the delegates said in their submission, the work is humanitarian in orientation and important to the families of the victims and in achieving truth, justice and reconciliation. The commission is certainly one of the more successful initiatives in achieving some reconciliation and comfort for the families in the wake of the Troubles. We should all be learning from that.

The Chairman was talking about LiDAR. Are there things that we, as members of a committee, can do to support the commission? Are the things the two Governments can do to support the commission and that we could help to advocate? What is it that we can do to help the delegates to continue the good work?

I would like to take a moment to springboard from the good work the delegates are doing to consider the issue of truth and justice in general. The Independent Commission on Information Retrieval was part of the Stormont House Agreement in 2014. Its aim was not judicial prosecution but to establish the truth, achieve reconciliation and give families the information they wanted about their loved ones to help with the grieving process. While there has been detailed agreement regarding the Independent Commission on Information and Retrieval, we have never seen any legislation or progress on it here. An agreement would require legislation in Dublin and also Westminster. Any time I have asked about it, I have been told there is ongoing contact with Westminster. The Irish Government should not be waiting for the British Government but should be progressing this ourselves. Nothing is stopping us from carrying out our own pre-legislative scrutiny to make progress and from putting moral pressure on the British Government to act.

It is important to highlight the effect the British Government's approach in the form of a unilateral amnesty has had on communities and family members of victims. It has been very upsetting and has caused more problems. Again, we need to work with victims' families so we can have proper healing, truth, reconciliation and, ultimately, justice. The commission provides an excellent example of that in practice. It is a shame that we have not been able to follow through in other areas.

I will leave my little speech there and return to my original questions: is there something we can do to help the delegates with their work, and is there something the two Governments can do to help the commission with its work that we can advocate as a committee?