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

I join others in condemning this command paper and the idea that we would simply draw a line under the legacy of the Troubles and think that this would be okay. I joined others, some of whom are members of the committee, in standing with families in Belfast to condemn this. The point has been made several times that there is cross-party all-island unanimity that these proposals are a bad idea. It was pointed out there is more agreement that this is the wrong thing to do than there was agreement that the Good Friday Agreement itself was the right thing to do. That is how far removed the Tory party is. It has managed to drive the competing communities and parties together, which is probably a very rare thing to happen.

As an Oireachtas committee, we must keep an eye on the British Government and the Good Friday Agreement but also on the Irish Government. I am very much concerned that failing to legislate here has allowed us to be sucked into the memory hole the British Government is desperate to go down. We could go down a long route into how it has stood in the way of truth and justice and actively sabotaged and undermined previous inquiries, but much of that will not get us very far. There was a detailed agreement between Dublin and London relating to an independent commission on information retrieval, which would have necessitated legislation in Dublin and London. There was no move here to take any steps towards that. Even publishing heads of Bill or beginning pre-legislative scrutiny to put some moral pressure on London never happened. By doing this, we have allowed ourselves to a certain degree to be sucked into the British Government's memory hole. Yes, there is a serious crimes review team within An Garda Síochána but it is very broad and will deal with Troubles cases where appropriate. I would echo the words of others here regarding our own historic inquiries unit, which can specialise in these things.

There are disadvantages to being at the end of the speaking list but one advantage is that all the questions I wanted to ask have been asked. The most important thing we can do in this committee is to try to be constructive and focus on the things we agree on instead of throwing up minor things we disagree on. We discussed the information not being shared and other ways to approach this.

I wonder whether engagement with the Minister and his officials would be useful. Would that need to be in public or private in order that we get slightly more truthful answers?

My next question stems from a genuine sense of curiosity because I do not know the answer. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is perhaps an international body that we, as parliamentarians in Dublin, should seek to use to put pressure on the British Government. The European Convention on Human Rights has within its jurisprudence a right to truth, which would support the families and undermine the British Government's case.

Equally, one has the British Government saying that it wants to amend its own human rights legislation to deal with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights that it does not agree with, which is concerning. As Mr. Brecknell said, by the time we get to the Supreme Court in London things would move very slowly and it could be even slower in Strasbourg.

If we are trying to find every avenue possible and try every lever that we can pull, then one thing we can do here would be to link with any party that does have members in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and to explore in that one option, alongside all of the letters and committees that we have spoken about previously.

I do not have any questions for the witnesses. I thank them for their presentations, and for the hard work and campaigning that they have done.

For me, there is a certain small frustration about how we seem to be repeating the same conversation and it is very hard to move things along. I can appreciate that such frustration is that of an outsider. I can only imagine that on top of that frustration, there is heartache for those who have lost loved ones and family members. They just want to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones and that in itself is reason enough for all us to come together and take action. I will leave it there. There is lots of time left over and I am sure other Members will happily take this on.