Ms Claire Hanna:

I thank the witnesses for their presentation and for laying out where we are and the issues we are dealing with. Like everyone on the committee, it is striking and useful that there is absolute unanimity, as Senator Currie said, across all the parties on the island against these proposals for all the reasons outlined. The proposals will not bring people the truth let alone justice, they will not further reconciliation and they will also not counter some of the myths and romanticism still existing concerning violence and the use of violence. That is an important aspect as we enter more turbulent and polarised times. I refer to not having drained that wound regarding political violence.

Mr. Brecknell put it well and laid out the situation honestly when he said that, effectively, this conversation about legacy issues is going to get worse before it gets better. We will all probably have to realise that it is going to be a traumatic few years for society, not least for the victims and people like the witnesses who have the most personal and acute experiences. We are going to hear things which will be challenging for everybody but we just cannot skip this step. There is no question of a society healing and changing if we try to suppress and bury these things. As many academics and others have said, there are cases littered around the world of societies that have tried to do that and where such attempts have failed. The intergenerational nature of the witnesses' group indicates that at a personal level people are not just going to accept that if Boris Johnson says they should forget about these cases they should just forget about it. That will also not happen at a societal level.

We have discussed things that we can do as a committee and the Oireachtas response to this situation. From the perspective of the SDLP, as will be known, we are on the same page and have been. We are working, to the extent that we can, to try to assemble the cross-party opposition in Westminster to these proposals. As will be known from the contributions of some of the representatives of the other groups, that is focusing on the House of Lords as a way of involving people in this process who have fewer restrictions and a little bit more of an ability to be honest about these legacy issues and who might be able to help tease out aspects of it. As Mr. Finucane said, however, we are not in a good place with the UK Government. Meetings with the parties as recently as this week have just had the same attitude. There is a sense, though, that we do not want to completely blow up the process or else that will allow it to be said that there is no consensus or alternative and that, therefore, what is being proposed will be cracked on with.

Regarding questions, colleagues from all the parties have covered the kind of pertinent issues concerning the witnesses' experiences and the technical aspects. There is not a lot to work from in the command paper, but in the witnesses' understanding what would be its impact regarding the ability to share information between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána? Have the witnesses any analysis to contribute concerning how the impact of the command paper would prevent and thwart cross-Border cases, particularly like that of the witnesses?