Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Both Deputy Carroll MacNeill and I very much want to speak on this. I wish to reflect on the disappointing attendance by Sinn Féin today. Normally, we have many more Sinn Féin attendees at this meeting. It calls itself an all-island party but it actually has two slots on this committee. Its members did not use all their time in the first segment and there have been three attendees. That needs to be pointed out. If this was such a priority you would think there would be more Sinn Féin members here.

I welcome Mr. Michael McConville and Ms Maria Lynskey. Most especially, I must state that my family is linked to that of Mr. Oliver McVeigh and Ms Dympna Kerr. My parents knew their family so well. There were many cups of tea in our kitchen. One of the last conversations I had with my father before he died this day a month ago was about any opportunity I had to bring attention to their family and bringing Columba home. Columba is never far from out thoughts and was never far from his thoughts. As Oliver and Dympna know, he was part of the eulogy at Daddy's funeral. I ask them how it feels when the leaders of a party that is so opposed to the amnesty and who talk the talk about truth and justice are holding back the information Oliver and Dympna need. Those leaders have the power to provide that information and they are not giving it. How does it feel when they say members of the IRA were not criminals, honour the horrors of the past and justify the past? I also want to know whether our guests feel there is still a culture of omerta, silence and coercive control within that organisation and if that is a barrier to getting the truth. I ask the Sinn Féin members who are here what they personally are going to do about it, if the information is not forthcoming.