Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

Some 34 people were killed on 17 May 1974 and, as yet, they have not received justice. Neither have their families received the support of or a commitment from the Garda or the British authorities in the context of a resolution of the outstanding problems. Those of us who are members of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement have met the victims' families on a number of occasions. We met the families of the Monaghan victims in the very recent past. Even the funding provided to assist these people in their efforts has been cut. The Taoiseach has given a commitment - I hope he lives up to it - to restore the funding in question. All that is involved is a small sum of money to assist people in trying to seek justice for their lost loved ones. There is no doubt they deserve it.

There is also an outstanding issue in respect of the Ballymurphy massacre. The legacy of the latter is extremely painful for the families of those who were cut down in their own community by British forces. The McEntee report indicates those who carried out inquiries into these matters were significantly restricted in their investigations by the refusal of the British authorities to co-operate. The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly needs to exert pressure on the Irish and British Governments and the security services in order that a just resolution in respect of the painful matters to which I refer and the legacy with which the victims' relatives have been obliged to live.

My party and I are strongly of the view that what is needed to resolve these issues is a commitment to establish an international truth commission. Such an entity would allow us to begin a process of national and international reconciliation. If a truth commission were put in place, it would allow us to clean the slate. The families of the victims, who are themselves also victims, would have the opportunity to witness reconciliation for everyone involved in their lifetimes. This has already been done to a large extent in South Africa, which experienced a very painful period of political, state-sponsored and reactionary violence. All that is required to establish an international truth commission is the requisite political will.

I am an Irish republican and I want to see an end to the Union. I am sure everyone in the House shares the same aspiration. I want to bring about a united Ireland in which people can determine the future together. The Union is becoming less relevant and significant, both in this country and in Britain, where the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are now in existence. The Tánaiste referred to the economic benefits relating to the peace process and so forth. The economic benefits to the island of Ireland of ending the Union are extremely transparent. There are many duplicate structures on this island, including those relating to agriculture, tourism and policing. We could be working together to bring about a situation whereby it would be far more economically beneficial for the island of Ireland to have a single structure in place. That is all possible. Provision is made in the Good Friday Agreement to move towards bringing about an end to British control in the Six Counties with the consent of the people who live there.

As already stated, when one is living through events they seem to take a very long time to transpire. When we look back, however, we can see that this has been quite a short period in our history. We have managed to bring 99.9% of the people to a place where it will be possible to resolve our outstanding difficulties in a peaceful manner. I have been associated with the struggle in the past and there are those on the other side of the House who were associated with it in the early 1970s. I refer to certain members of the Government who were involved in the same form of struggle with which I was associated.

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