Mr. Gerry Adams:

The point I was going to make is that we can agree to disagree about the history. I have given my view. The Senator has a different view and that is fair enough. I was simply describing the fact that there were all of these events, developments and so on. If the Senator knows better, that is fair enough or if she simply disagrees, that is also okay.

A long time ago Sinn Féin put forward a proposition for a truth recovery process and that would have held everyone to account from the armed groups on the British, unionist and republican sides to everyone else in between. I have worked closely with victims' families for a long time. We should not generalise about the issue of victims. Victims come at this in different ways. Some want those who caused them to be bereaved or injured them held accountable in court; others do not. Some are the best peacemakers I have ever come across. Some have a view that they are getting on with their lives. The general brief answer to the Senator's question is that everyone has the right to truth and anybody who knows the truth they can give to those people should do so, whatever their background or history. A process should be in place.

There is no point in any of us, particularly those in government, bemoaning the British Government. The British Government has torn up these commitments. That is what it has done. What is our Government doing about that? What is our Government doing to make the British Government accountable in front of international fora, dealing with legacy issues, issues of victims and bereavement and so on? There is an answer to this. At the moment there is no mechanism for resolving these issues - none - despite numerous agreements. I was there for numerous agreements and they have all been torn up one after the other. The answer to the question of why that is so is that British agents and troops are still doing things in other parts of the world that they used to do in our part of the world. British Governments will not allow themselves to put those people out to dry no matter what. Perhaps Tony Blair was the big exception when he set up the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

I was shot. My house was bombed.