Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach for making that statement. I know it is never easy for a public representative, especially somebody who holds the Chair of an important committee such as this, to sit in front of his or her colleagues and tell them that he or she made a mistake and to outline that he or she is genuinely sorry for that mistake. I believe the Chairman. I think anybody who knows him, regardless of their political affiliations, will believe him. Anybody who knows him will know that the tweet was a clumsy attempt at something. I think he has accepted that and that it was not the place to have, as other members of the committee have alluded to, an important debate in which we all need to participate.

Anybody who knows Brian Stanley will acknowledge that, first and foremost, he is a good man. He is a fair man. He is certainly a very fair and effective Chair of this committee. In the short number of months since the committee has been in existence, anybody looking on, recognising the challenges that it has faced trying to deal with two-hour sessions and what are in some instances very elaborate and detailed issues and sets of accounts, knows that the Chairman has conducted himself in a very fair and effective manner that has allowed this committee to deliver, insofar as it can, under those restrictive measures.

These are going to be a very important number of years, not only in the context of the ongoing decade of centenaries, but also as we move to the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. That means we all need to be part of mature reflection, but also mature discussion and debate and a recognition that there is not a shared narrative in terms of the causes of conflict in the first instance but also the outworking of those conflicts. The only thing we all agree on is that in whatever roles we have, we must all do everything within our power to ensure that never again does this island experience the conflicts that have been a hallmark of Irish history. We are moving to a point in terms of the Good Friday generation where some Members of this House have no recollection of the conflict itself. This means that those of us who have some recollection and those who have a very clear recollection of the conflict have a very important responsibility to ensure that there is no glory in conflict. Unfortunately, many people suffered. As has already been mentioned, lots of people tragically lost their lives. The role that we all now need to play is to ensure that the suffering and loss of life in those circumstances never happens again.

As for this committee, we have important work to do. I, for one, accept the Chairman's apology. I believe that it is heartfelt. I hope that in our own individual ways we can play a role to ensure that we can all give commitments that we will be incredibly careful in terms of our public utterances on these issues in the first instance, but that we can play constructive roles in the ongoing job of building peace in our country.