Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thanks a million to Ms Teggart and to Mr. O'Hare and Mr. Reavey. That cannot have been easy. It was very difficult even to hear the amount of pain Mr. O'Hare and Mr. Reavey's families have been through. I have heard Mr. Reavey's story before and met him a few times. It is always lovely to see him and I thank him for what he is doing today and for fighting the good fight, even though he has needed to fight it for far too long. My questions are probably in the same space. It does not happen very often but across the spectrum we are all united on this. There is absolutely nothing good in this Bill and we completely agree with our guests that it needs to be scrapped rather than changed.

My questions are, as I said, building on what others have asked. What sense do our guests have of what the changes the British Government is talking about might be? It seems to be trying to put window dressing on something completely unacceptable. Trying to get into the mind-set of the British Government, here is a Bill that has been criticised and condemned all round, including by the UN and the Committee of Ministers. Why do our guests think it continues to progress this regardless? I would like to get a sense of their perspectives on this. Here we are with a new Prime Minister but through the different iterations of the British Government, this Bill is going to proceed. Why is it so determined when it knows the impact the legislation is going to have on victims and on Northern Ireland and the fact that everyone is against it?

On how the interstate case works, what happens if it the Bill is made law and then successfully challenged? Does that mean the law is reversed? I would like a sense of what actually happens here for victims because I want to be sure we are giving the right hope or that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I want to know what that means. We are doing the right thing by challenging it at every step. The ideal situation would be that it is scrapped and does not become law at all but if it does become law and we challenge it, what happens if we are successful?