Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat arís. We must deal with these matters not as part of 19 questions once every five or six weeks but as part of a strategy by the Government. Why does the Government not take on board the suggestion I have made or else say it is nonsense and we will do it some other way? Why do we not examine the issue of victims and look after them? Now that the war is over, why do we not start to deal with this issue properly, as we discussed earlier, in some manner that can have the confidence of all the victims, if that is possible, but which particularly can bring about the type of healing process that is required?

I will leave it at that with this last remark. We are going to celebrate a decade of centenaries. We think about, perhaps, Thomas Ashe, James Connolly, Tom Barry or Michael Collins. From my generation, I think about Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes or Mairéad Farrell. Those in 1916 had no mandate and all the difference there is between them is time. We now have a peaceful democratic way to go forward to unite our people. If I can get time out, I am in Belfast every single weekend. I am busy at the weekends there as well. I deal with people at loyalist grassroots level, Unionist communities and people who were bereaved or hurt by the IRA. I will continue to do that until the day I die. Let us say what we want about the IRA, or about Sinn Féin for that matter, but let us try to position it in an acoustic and narrative which is about closure and about healing.

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