Ms Sandra Peake:

The Deputy made the important point that memories do not improve. We know that those who were involved in these cases in their teens or 20s are now coming towards the age of 70, in some cases. Next year will mark 50 years since Ms Lynskey's uncle disappeared.

If you were in your 20s then, you will now be in your 70s now. That is where there is a real urgency on this. This is not something we have time to spend on. In ten years, the committee will not be coming back to talk to us about it. Time is of the essence. Sometimes it is felt that it is only when the families jostle and highlight this that we get a flurry of activity. We need this to be addressed now because people are getting older, dying or becoming ill - all the various things that happen in life - and we need to find the mechanisms.

I go back to the point Ms Morgan made. We urge those involved in this to go back to the start of these cases, assume nothing, look at it as if they are looking at it for the first time and engage directly with the commission. In Columba's case, they need to go back to the start of what they knew. In Joe's case, they also need to go back to what they know. There was a very limited search for Joe in Wilkinstown. I do not know whether members know this, but Maria was on her way to the search site, believing he had been recovered, when she got a call just outside Dundalk to tell her it was not one body but two bodies and that, therefore, it was unlikely to be Joe and more likely to be Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright. What a journey to make only to be told that halfway down the road. However, for Philomena McKee and the Wright family, it was a good day, if we can say that, because their loved ones were returned.

We have to go back to the start to look at these cases. There has been limited information on Joe and the searches too have been limited. As for Columba, wherever he is, he is not where the indications suggested he was on Bragan Bog. Bragan Bog is one of the most horrific places you can go. It is four miles up a lane, remote, with no sign of life, cold and barren, with a feeling of true isolation. We need people to go back to the start and consider this and we need people to engage directly with the independent commission. I have been involved in these cases for 25 years. I have sat with families who the commission told nothing more could be done because the people involved were dead, yet they were not dead and information came. I urge them to go back to the start again and work step by step through the commission. As Ms Morgan described, she had to make a move and highlight the issue again. For many people, Columba is just a name, but he was a beloved son and brother and he had all sorts of things he liked and an impish personality. He annoyed his older sister and his younger brother. Joe, too, had his own qualities. I urge those involved to go back to the start, look at these cases from the beginning and engage with the commission directly. People are not getting any younger and time is of the essence.