Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

One of the other points that concerns me is that some of the reportage quoted the Secretary of State as saying he was listening to the Joint Committee on Human Rights and that its report had voiced concerns about the Bill. To be honest, I find that a little frustrating, to be polite, given that victims' groups have been campaigning for a long time against the Bill and against the proposals, even before the Bill was published, and the Secretary of State has not listened to them. To me, that speaks to a very poor view in Westminster on victims and the people of Northern Ireland and their representatives who, to a person, have been campaigning against the Bill across the community. That underlines the role of the Irish Government as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and its role in protecting the rights of people living in Northern Ireland. Going back to Ms Teggart's original point on the interstate challenge, we in the committee must underline the importance of that and the role of the Irish Government as co-guarantor.

I would like to ask the views of the other witnesses as well. It seems to those of us sitting here that the British Government has been completely deaf to the needs of victims. Is that the experience of the witnesses or is there anything they want to share with the British Government, positive or negative, on this entire process?