Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Members who spoke. It is particularly remarkable that there is unanimity across the House that this legislation should be enacted. Some speakers, in the course of their contributions, laid different emphases on different issues and indeed, some strayed into a broad range of other areas that I do not seek to enter into this evening. The basic issue is recognising the reality that the individuals whose situation is addressed in this Bill, many of whom are now deceased, showed great courage in fighting on the Allied side in the Second World War. No one should doubt the reality that had Nazi Germany been successful in that war, Ireland's neutrality would have been a meaningless concept. There would have been nothing to protect this island from invasion. Many lives in the Defence Forces would have been lost in trying to defend the island but the likelihood that we-----

See this speech in context