Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

There were, but that was an appalling offence and it was a murder, but it was still the view of very senior people in Sinn Féin that it was not a murder. If I remember correctly the Deputy First Minister stated the family may think it was a murder and he would not disagree with them but he would not call it a murder.

If we want to move on from this period in the past, what we need is an admission from Sinn Féin that these people are not heroes and the offences of which they were convicted were wrong and that they recognise these murders as murders. If we had this type of statement it might be possible for me to reconsider my position on the amendment. However, if the Deputies still pretend these offences were justified, or entirely politically motivated, or were not even murders, I do not think it is possible to draw a line under them.

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