Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

In moving this amendment I did not really want to make political arguments. However, some of the things the Minister said have put me in a position where I need to say certain things. There was a conflict on this island and many things happened in that conflict. Not all of us are happy, and are finding it very difficult, to stand by many of the things that happened, but they happened. It was a very prolonged campaign and as a movement, as a party, we are in favour of a truth commission. We want to see the truth come out in general. Over the years the Government of this State stood by and allowed many things to happen. I will give an example of where the Government in this State failed the people in the North and in the whole island. The intelligence services in this State worked closely, hand-in-glove, with the intelligence services in the North, whether it was through the Garda, the Army or otherwise. Much of the information passed over to the Northern security services ended up in the hands of loyalists.

The Government knew this was going on and we had the examples of the Littlejohns operating down here. The British intelligence system was operating in the South unhindered, with no action taken against it. The information sent across the Border to the Northern authorities ended, without doubt, in the deaths of civilians in the Northern part of our State and possibly in the South.

I could go through many examples. On the night of the attack on the Widow Scallan's pub, 300 people were nearly murdered and gardaí were sitting at the door. They happened to move off and the loyalist death squad came in. There are very serious questions to be answered about the role of this State in what happened over the years. The Minister should not tell me that his Government and past Governments do not have to answer for something. There is much to answer for. I find some of the remarks deeply insulting. They are revisionist, which is what has been going on in this State for so long. It is time for the truth to come out. My party and I are up for the truth and we will do our best to take part in that process. Our leaders have indicated that.

We are dealing with this amendment and it is important to send out a message that people and their families are not being abandoned. They were dragged into a conflict that went on for a long time. I am once again pleading with the Minister's party and people in Labour were involved in the conflict at an earlier stage. I do not know how, in conscience, they can vote against an amendment like this.

See this speech in context