Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I was a member of the Oireachtas sub-committee which dealt with the final report from Mr. Justice Barron. I listened to the stories of the relatives and some survivors and it was a time that will change every one of us forever.

The reports by the Oireachtas Joint Committee into collusion between the British security forces and loyalist paramilitary organisations relating to a series of murders during the 1970s are extremely shocking and disturbing. Even taking into consideration the context of the era, the extent of collusion is much greater than many would have assumed existed prior to these investigations. I share the views expressed yesterday by my colleague, Deputy Joe Costello, that the British Government must now co-operate fully with all investigations into these atrocities. Its continued refusal to co-operate with these investigations prevents the full truth from emerging. The picture that emerges of the level of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries is shocking, with repeated references to information not being shared, information being withheld and a lack of co-operation between security forces in Northern Ireland and the Garda Síochána on this side of the Border who were attempting to investigate these incidents.

The families of those killed have campaigned for years to find out the truth about the circumstances that led to the deaths of their loved ones. Throughout that time, their firm belief and insistence that there was security force involvement in these killings was often disregarded or blatantly ignored. However, that will not happen any longer because all the reports confirm what they believed in the first place.

I was a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee which conducted the hearings and compiled the fourth and final report on Mr. Justice Barron's investigations. Overall, we were left in no doubt that there was collusion between members of the British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries and that this was known at the very highest level in Whitehall. There should be no misapprehension about the role of the Barron commission or the Dáil hearings. They were not public inquiries and were never intended to be regarded as such. As emphasised by the committee chairman, Deputy Seán Ardagh, the purpose of the Dáil hearings was to draw lessons from the Barron exercise and decide whether further action was warranted.

If I, as someone who sat on the committee, am really frustrated and annoyed, I can only imagine what the relatives of the victims and survivors are feeling today. This debate is simply further adding to their list of questions. The main question now being added to that list is where do we go from here? There is no conclusion to what is being done here today. There is no stepping further. None of the recommendations of the committee is being dealt with and there is no action planned for the future. This issue is not closed. Just as for the past 30 years, these people will not go away. They will insist on closure and on knowing all there is to know.

Clearly the level of implementation of the recommendations in the various reports has been totally unsatisfactory to date. Ten years of formal Government and Parliament sponsored investigations, reports and recommendations since the establishment of the initial Victims Commission in 1998 must be acted on. However, there appears to be no way that we can move forward from this debate.

Persistent reports of collusion also demand that Britain opens its files to scrutiny. While its track record in the murky world of espionage makes co-operation unlikely, the Government must use its close relationship with the British Government to ensure evidence of collusion is shown the light of day. While credit can be given to the British Government for introducing reforms, and particularly for the establishment of the historical inquiries team, under the PSNI, it does not meet international standards for investigation. Furthermore, what is most annoying is the fact that its findings will not be published. The committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is scrutinising British compliance with several judgments of the European Court of Human Rights relating to Northern Ireland. However, despite these developments, the serious concerns and unanswered questions of those affected by past collusion have not been addressed adequately, if at all.

For many years, the relatives of the victims have felt they have been abandoned, misled and marginalised. After 30 years of despair, it is imperative that our Government insists that the British Government puts these atrocities, which claimed so many lives, under the penetrating searchlight of the public gaze.

There is no need for us to sympathise with the people in the Visitors Gallery today. There is no need for us to tell them what happened. They know, they were there, they lived it. They relive it every day. What they want from us is to know how they will get closure. They are not getting closure as a result of this process. We should take seriously the recommendations of the committee and put them in place. We should deal with this as one sovereign Government to another. The days are long gone when we tread on eggshells for fear of bringing everything down around our ears. We must say to the British Government that these people deserve to know and we, as a Government, demand to know.

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