Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Taoiseach has met those families - the victims of the Kingsmill massacre and also other families from the south Fermanagh area. I have also met many bereaved families. I come from a family that was bereaved twice during the course of the conflict. Many of those killed were my friends and neighbours. This is not a mere debating point in this Chamber - this is a real life experience. As one of those who has survived the conflict and survived a number of attempts to kill me, I believe it is really important that we continue to engage with bereaved families and other victims. We need to resist what the Fianna Fáil leader did very sneakily a moment ago when he said that Sinn Féin needs to account more honestly. Let us be careful about how we bandy about words on these issues.

What happened at Kingsmill was certainly wrong and the relatives of those who were killed are entitled to the truth. The Taoiseach said something on which we need to follow through, which is that there can be no hierarchy of victimhood. Every family regardless of the perpetrator of their bereavement or injury needs to be assisted, which will not be easy. There was never a truth and reconciliation process in this State. There was never a peace and reconciliation process into the events of the Tan War or the dreadful Civil War. I still meet families who anguish and agonise over the fact that loved ones were tied to landmines and taken out on lonely roads. This phase of the dreadful horror of war is not new - that is war and the nature of war. I thank God every day that we now have a peace process and that it is working. I have never distanced myself from the men and women volunteers of the IRA and do not do so today because it would be wrong. Of course things were done that I regret very much. However, governments were also guilty of that behaviour including successive Irish Governments.

What is to be done? Some 19 questions, eight of them mine, have been tabled on this issue, which we could discuss for days. There needs to be some way of looking at how we deal with these matters. People do not trust each other. Some families get help through the HET and some families do not. Some families are really annoyed about how the HET has proceeded. Sinn Féin's position is that we are agnostic on this issue. If the HET can help, we do not try to influence people and suggest that they work with that body if that is what they can do. However, to get over the distrust we need to bring in an independent international agency. It is for the Government to approach the British Government to facilitate that. We need to try to ensure it is independent of any state, combatant group or political group, and also independent of civic society and economic interests. It should initiate a process whereby those who want to from all sides - those responsible for collusion, the IRA, Unionist paramilitaries, those responsible for actions that happened in this State and so on - can come in and assist in inquiries and investigations into what happened. Of course there are those with vested interests who do not want the truth and of course that will be a very painful process. Closure, in so far as it is possible, requires that we do that. Otherwise what we will do - the Taoiseach spelled it out very graphically - is to try to take blood from a stone and we could do that for ten years. We need to move beyond that and provide a process to bring about healing.

I will now deal with some of the other issues, but they are also connected with this. In October, the Taoiseach told us that his officials had met the Ballymurphy families. He might know that an inquest established by the North's Attorney General has just been suspended. The first inquest was a complete shambles and cover up. Thirteen people were killed and I know the Fianna Fáil Deputy met their families and heard their graphic story of what occurred. The North's Attorney General ruled that inquest was not a proper inquest and established another one. Now it has been suspended, which is very upsetting for those involved. So we still do not have a date for that meeting. Since I became a Member of this House, the Taoiseach has been promising to meet them, but he has still not done it. I have also argued for the position taken by the former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, in co-operation with the previous Government of putting together a file on cases such as the Ballymurphy case, as Mr. Blair did in the Bloody Sunday case.

I actually sent the Taoiseach a file on Martin Corey and Marian Price. Marian Price went into custody in May 2011 without charge or trial and has been held in solitary confinement for almost all that time. I wish to know what the Taoiseach has done on that issue. She is very seriously ill - I sent him the medical file. Now that Ireland has a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, will the Taoiseach ensure the matter is raised there?

I also note the Taoiseach, in a letter to me, has refused to meet with Justice for the Forgotten - the relatives of those killed and injured in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. They are very upset by that refusal to meet.

There are other issues, such as the North-South Ministerial Council. Will I leave it at that and come back?

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