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 Jennifer Carroll MacNeillJennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McGreehan for saying that. It is very important. I will raise two things. One is on the granularity of what Senator Currie is suggesting. If you look at the sources of funding, and if you are really going to do this effectively, you have to look at all the sources of funding. You have to look at Irish Government funding, European Union funding and British Government funding. What is the totality of funding that is going into community-type or community-based - we have to put a broad spread on the titles we use here - or victim-support programmes? Where is that coming from? As a committee, we should be able to get that information.

What is the total amount of money that has gone into those organisations since the signing of the agreement? Where has it gone? What are the names of the groups? What is the purpose of those groups? What are they doing? Then there is a cross-referencing piece with people like our guests where we can look at the different groups and ask who is there. The Chairman is right about an audit and the right groups but it requires a step beyond. It requires us being able to ask more about those groups. It is the same, by the way, on the republican side. I have certainly said this a number of times at the committee but on our trip to Belfast, it was very clear how well-supported, in terms of logistics, people and campaign support, some victims' groups were. When we went to the WAVE Trauma Centre, as Deputy Brendan Smith rightly acknowledged, it was not that those people were alone as they were supported by that centre but there was nothing like the campaigning structure, which costs money, placed around them. If we are to have a real analysis of that we need to be able to identify all those sources of funding. There is also a question about other sources of funding and what the complete amount of funding to those different groups is, what proportion of it, if it is a proportion, comes from state or government funding and how else it may be funded and what that means, because it is worth acknowledging.

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