Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 17 February 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

Engagement with Representatives from the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation

Ms Róisín McGlone:

I will take that question, if Deputy Tully does not mind. I would like to start at the end because that is the easiest question. No, we have not met anybody in the victims' and survivors' groups who supports the British Government's command paper.

I stress at this stage that we will not be identifying those we work with. We do not represent victims and survivors, but we work alongside them. We are not here to represent anyone. We keep confidential the groups that we work with. However, I can absolutely guarantee that we work with every sort of group set up to work with victims and survivors in Northern Ireland. This includes those connected to people who were killed by the State and people who were members of State forces. We work with all victims but we have not met anyone who agrees with the proposal. That does not mean they all have the same reason for not agreeing with it, but none of the groups we work with agree with it. We are talking about groups representing thousands of people. We work with the main representatives of those groups and wider groups. I was going to print out the numbers because one of the things Europe is very good at is looking for figures. I was going to print them out but I did not. I can supply them to the Deputy. We have had in the region of almost a thousand contacts with people over the four years. We have had multiple contacts with people. We work with four large hard-to-reach groups as well as doing bigger events. I do not believe any of the members were able to attend the play, "Those You Pass In The Street", the Kabosh theatre company put on in Dublin in November. I know the Chair attended.

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