Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I extend a warm welcome, as the Cathaoirleach did, to Ms Liz McManus and her colleagues today. I thank them for their work in this regard. We all participated in committees with Ms McManus when she was a distinguished Member of the Dáil over many years. It is good to see her in the committee room again. I welcome any engagement on the issue of reconciliation legacy. On many occasions, we have different groups here, whether victims or advocates for reconciliation and legacy issues. The one extremely disappointing thing is the British Bill which is before the House of Lords at present. As we all know, it is a legacy Bill offering immunity to people responsible for the most heinous of crimes on the basis that they co-operate with a new truth recovery body. If that Bill was enacted and implemented, it would put an end to core proceedings and inquests. We are all conscious and most of us have worked with different families who have been seeking the truth. The reality is that, today, the likelihood of prosecution for crimes which happened half a century ago is very limited. As each of the contributors said, families want the truth. In my constituency, there were bombings and deaths. We all know where the bombs emanated from but there has sadly never been co-operation from the British or Northern Ireland authorities to bring successful prosecutions.

On 28 December I attended the 50th anniversary of the bombing in Belturbet where two young teenagers were killed. Their families, whom I have worked with over the years, say to me that we are all getting older. Memories will fade. It is an issue that needs to be addressed and it is not straightforward. I saw a comment attributed to Bertie Ahern recently. When the issue of truth and recovery came up he said that there are not too many left from around the negotiating table when he introduced this particular subject. We all know that we need progress on this issue and that it will get more difficult as we go on. The first thing the British should do is withdraw the Bill they have proposed. It is a shame there was not a determination on the part of the British Government to implement the Stormont House Agreement. It had the potential to achieve some of the issues we all want to see addressed.

Mr. Yeates mentioned the disappeared. Four of the people who are known as the disappeared are still missing. In Monaghan, which is in my constituency, the search goes on for the late Columba McVeigh. There are people out there who have information that would be relevant. We cannot say it often enough in public fora that if anybody has a scintilla of information they should provide it to the authorities. Great credit is due to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains for the work it has done over the years. We all want to keep echoing our support for this work.

I am not very familiar with the truth and recovery processes in Chile and Colombia. I have some familiarity with what happened in South Africa. Perhaps someone will expand on what has been achieved in these two countries. How successful has it been? They are ongoing processes, I assume.

Mr. Yeates said that a truth and reconciliation process "would enable victims and their families to request information from former combatants and expedite access to state records and compensation". The first thing I think of is the inability of the British Government to co-operate with requests for information. In 2008, 2011 and 2016 both Houses of the Oireachtas unanimously passed motions calling on the British Government to provide access for an independent international eminent legal person to all files and papers pertaining to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. This request was repeated by a sovereign Parliament to a neighbouring sovereign Parliament and Government. To date we have not received a worthwhile response to it.

All of us in the various groups in which we participate raise this particular issue, whether at this committee, at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly or through questions in the Dáil. Our colleague, Deputy Brendan Howlin, spoke about it recently, as have other colleagues, and at every meeting where we have an opportunity to meet the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland or the Foreign Secretary we raise it. I am throwing out the question as to how confident anybody could be of the British Government giving access to state records when it has refused to give access to an international person to the papers on the two awful crimes that occurred in Dublin and Monaghan. This worries me. I hope my worries are badly based but they have not been to date. This is a weakness that I see in it. Perhaps I can be reassured that Truth Recovery Process is more confident. Successive Irish Governments have said they will provide information that will lead to truth and proper investigations. I have no doubt that whatever Government is in office it will do so on behalf of the Irish people. This is what the Irish people would wish for.

I have known Andy Pollak for many years and his work at the Centre for Cross Border Studies. He has been a powerful advocate of, and worker on, the promotion of cross-Border activity and all-Ireland work. We have seen how much has been achieved without any fanfare. So much has been addressed on a cross-Border basis. There has been the growth of the all-Ireland economy. The work of the centre has been important in highlighting the potential and getting the message out on what has been achieved. As a society, we have a lot of work yet to do.