Mr. Raymond McCord:

First, I voted against the Good Friday Agreement. I was interviewed about that the night before. I live in Tiger's Bay, which is a strong loyalist area. I voted it against it for one reason: I disagreed with the prisoners being released. I made that point in the statement. It was agreed to let all of the prisoners and killers out and that the victims would just have to swallow it. Again with these proposals, victims are being told to swallow it but we are not going to do that. We had to swallow it the first time, but we will not do it again.

Over the years, there have been various initiatives and agreements, including the Stormont House Agreement, the St. Andrews Agreement and so on. I do not need a 20, 30 or 40 page document to say that murder is wrong or that there should be an investigation into my son's murder, the murder of the family members of Ms McIlvenny, Mr. Monaghan and thousands of other people. I do not need a Stormont House Agreement or a St. Andrews Agreement to tell me what way to bring it forward. The law in Dublin and in countries throughout Europe and the world states that murder is a crime, the police should investigate it and, where there is sufficient evidence, should take cases to court. It is very simple. People make a big issue of all of these agreements. I have never read any of them. I have not read the Good Friday Agreement, but it has not worked for victims. We have been left behind. If we were not being left behind, we would not be here today putting our case about the amnesty proposals and what the Good Friday Agreement has failed to do for us. It has failed to help us get justice. More needs to be done. I do not know the rules and regulations of the Good Friday Agreement. I believe in simple processes and getting things done. You do not need an inquiry to find out if things are bad within a unionist community or a nationalist community; you can find that out by visiting the areas and speaking to people. You do not need to spend thousands of pounds or euro to find out what is happening; you need only ask the people, but you need to do that privately and not at a public meeting, particularly within the unionist community, because the paramilitaries are in control and people will be afraid to speak.

I welcome this opportunity to engage with the committee and to speak about how I feel and what is really going on. I advise the committee to visit Belfast to meet the ordinary working class people, but to not ask politicians or community workers to set up meetings.