Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 April 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

Engagement with Truth and Justice Movement

Photo of Emer CurrieEmer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a pleasure to have our guests here, and it was a pleasure to go to Belfast City Hall to meet them last August to sign their document. It was also a pleasure to put forward the motion in the Seanad that was based on the text of what we signed that day, and to travel to Westminster with our guests, to hear their stories and see the support they got from all the parties, except the Conservative Party. It was a pleasure to go to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and to question the Minister of State on the legacy proposals, which I utterly oppose. Our guests know how I feel. I condemn all murders and I have no problem saying that, just like them. The work they are doing is incredibly valuable. It is about putting victims first, not other communities, other badges or other identities. Our guests are victims, first and foremost. If we are going to heal society and heal the past, we must bring victims together and put them first.

I have a range of questions. If victims' groups, political parties and governments remain in silos and are only advocating for their own and not putting victims as a collective first as well as healing for the individual or healing collectively, will we ever see progress on reconciliation and will we ever see the full truth emerge? If the British Government is holding us back, and we know it is, what else and who else is holding us back from getting to the truth and justice and healing society, which is what we want and why we are here? This is about reconciliation and trying to work towards a normal society, or as normal as it can be based on the past. The Good Friday Agreement mentioned victims seven times. We are doing a report on the Good Friday Agreement after 25 years. Did it do enough? It brought us to a ceasefire, but what does it or what do we need to do in terms of reconciliation? My colleague, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, will ask some questions on that too.

There is one sentence on funding in the group's opening statement. It is a very important statement and we need to dig deeper into it. I acknowledge that there are many people doing a lot of good work, but I want our guests to dig deeper on that. Who is turning a blind eye, in what areas is that happening and what needs to be done to resolve that?

The role of paramilitaries and their ongoing presence has been acknowledged. The Independent Reporting Commission, of which Monica McWilliams is a member, has proposed a group transition and engaging with paramilitaries. What do our guests think about that? They are not here for easy questions.

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