Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions to ask and then I will bring in anyone who has additional points.

As mentioned by others, part of the difficulty is the fact that we are dealing with a group of people who have been so let down on so many occasions by the State that there really is no trust.

You can understand why. The Minister even acknowledged how people found out that the commitment that was given was not going to happen. It is really important that we have the memorialisation and archives and people get to tell their story but when people go to a commission, while it is not a criminal investigation, they nearly see it in the same light. They see as if they were giving a statement in that they feel that there is potentially a pathway to justice. That is possibly what is missing for people.

I hear what the Minister is saying about the legal complexities but in respect of the High Court case in January 2021, were changes not made at that point? If there were, was it possible for the State to look at making other changes to the commission of investigation? If there is an issue around legal difficulties, was there any way through amending legislation that this could have been changed?

My next question concerns the information and tracing legislation. Could the Minister remind people how they register for that? I know a significant number of people have already registered for that. Could he address any changes arising out of the High Court? If there were changes, was a precedent set then so that we could have made other changes? Was there a way of changing legislation? The memorialisation is really important but everybody has heard that people felt that there was nearly an attitude or a certain tone throughout the report along the lines of "well those were the times we were living in and it was unfortunate.". I know some of the findings were very robust and they were welcome but that is what people felt. They felt it was nearly half an apology along the lines of "we're sorry this happened but sure those were the kind of the times we lived in and it's a pity. Let's all move on now.". That is why when people thought someone with a human rights background was going to look at it, they really welcomed it because it felt like this was going to get the scrutiny it deserved. To a certain extent, it is probably the commission members who have us in this situation and they were the ones who would not come before this committee, which is unfortunate. We are relying on the Minister to pick up the slack for want of a better word.