Mr. Raymond McCord:

With respect and to tell the truth, I would not have given Monica McWilliams the job. There are some people who do reports on what paramilitaries are doing. How can those people do reports when they do not live in the local communities? I do not want to be disrespectful saying this to someone today, whether they are from Dublin or some other part of the Republic, about going to Belfast to do a report on the paramilitaries. They call people in to talk to them but you have to live in the community to know what is going on. Let us look at the appointees. There are victims' commissioners but I have yet to see a working class person or a victim appointed as one. The Victims and Survivors Service chief executive is an accountant. What would an accountant know about what it is like to be a victim and to face injustice? We need to look at the people who are appointed to these posts.

We talk about victims and one of the questions the Deputy asked was on how we break the link. We do so by appointing people who have the interests of victims at heart, not those who want money in their pockets because that is what happening and continues to happen. Politicians could be sitting watching this and hear what we are talking about and decide that they will meet Ms McIlvenny, Mr. Monaghan and I but nothing will be done about it. You go up and they will pat you on the back but we do not want pats on the back; we want them to do something for us. Most importantly, we want them to turn around and tell us they will help us to get justice and the truth for our family members. We want them to assure us that paramilitaries who control the areas will no longer be in control of them and that they will stop the funding going to them. Why will they not do that? They will not do so because they need their votes. Election time comes around and you will have loyalist paramilitaries putting the flags and posters up for certain political parties and candidates and it will not be mentioned that this man is a drug dealer or that his group is involved with drugs, extortion and beatings in our community. It is accepted.

People like Ms McIlvenny and I can talk about the unionist community and there are people like us who are not afraid to speak out, so I invite the politicians to come and meet us. We do not need a report because we live in the community. We went to Westminster three times and Billy McManus, whose father was killed in the Ormeau Road bookmakers, went with me the first time. People said we were wasting our time and that the British Government would not stop them. It got more victims involved on a cross-community basis and it got all the parties united. Parties could not do that but a small group of victims could. These people tell the truth and speak from the heart, not for the money. We paid for our fares over and for hotels; we did not ask anybody for help. Some people struggled to get the money to go over and some borrowed it. Some of the victims' groups have funding and those funds pay for these expenses. When you get a group of people who are determined to stop these proposals, then money was no object or hindrance. They turned around and said they would get the money and go. Not one politician came to us to ask us if we had the money to fly over. If they had have asked us, we would have told them where to go. That is the truth because it is not about money. For politicians and so-called community workers, it is not about helping the people or bringing them together. It is amazing that these people from the loyalist side can sit with people from the republican side and carve up deals, with the people excluded. The only way they can carve up deals is if they are getting funding. Let us stop that and let it go to the right people.