Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I welcome our two guests from Justice for Colombia. On a personal level I appreciate the interaction with Mr. Finn over recent months with us. He is very helpful and informative. I had occasion to speak with him several times as I have a real interest in this issue, which I think is shared by everyone in the room. I appreciate his interaction and his willingness to help and to inform, and his courtesy.

I am pleased that Ireland has a high profile here and that Colombia is high on the committee’s agenda. It is a priority for the Chair. I am pleased that delegates from this committee will travel to Colombia. That is important in order to keep the link. I am pleased that our Garda Síochána and Teagasc have a role. There are many forms of co-operation. It is wonderful that since 2016 as a country we have contributed roughly €17 million to support the peace process.

I am also proud that a distinguished predecessor of the Chair as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore, who has been a friend of mine since my youth and indeed a friend of our Chair’s since his youth, which is not that long ago, had a pivotal role in Colombia and I am proud of that as a fellow Member of the Oireachtas. He did great work on this issue that the witnesses will acknowledge.

I will make some comments and ask some questions. There is inevitably an overlap because, unfortunately, the themes are similar. In the briefing material and the documentation from the witnesses there is a great deal to be hopeful about on a number of fronts. It is interesting that the president has admitted the failure of the war on drugs. How do the witnesses see that? What do they anticipate the learning from that failure will be? What will be done there in future? To admit failure is a start.

In regard to the effort by the Colombian Government to be inclusive and to have what it calls a total peace, as it is described here, will the witnesses comment on the progress on that? It is important that it is going to be inclusive. I would be interested in the groupings being brought in, if the witnesses will elaborate on that. Related to that, on the negative side, the number of killings this year was 144 and 13,071 since the signing of the peace agreement. These are stark figures. What do the witnesses think about the total peace initiative and what might come out of the talks? Again, I would be interested in the widening of the groups. A total of 22 illegal armed groups have said they are willing to enter the peace process as well as the FARC dissident group, which is hugely significant. I am sure the witnesses would agree but do they see that actually succeeding? What do they envisage happening? The UN Secretary General's response to the new government seems positive.

The land reform is interesting along with the new pledge on rural reform and crop substitution. Will Mr. Dodwell elaborate on rural reform? That was always part of the Irish independence story as well. Will he also comment on the efforts to locate disappeared people as part of the evolution of the truth commission. What is the affect of that? How successful is it? My interpretation of the briefing material and documentation is that there is a mixture of hope and a certain level of a stark background. I appreciate that is the case, from the committee's point of view, and feel this should remain a high priority issue on our agenda this term.