Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If we are to get into recriminations, let us consider what happened at Aldershot and Ranger Best and the killing of Larry White and Seamus Costello. This is the narrative we get into when there is not a serious effort made to understand I am articulating a viewpoint – one might disagree with me and believe I am absolutely wrong – that is entirely legitimate. I co-operated with the Smithwick inquiry. I used whatever influence I had to ensure there was an unprecedented attendance in terms of former IRA volunteers speaking to the tribunal and the justice on more than one occasion. Why was that? Was it to score some cheap point against Fianna Fáil? No, it was not. It is because the war is over; it is done and dusted and now we have to build the peace. Building the peace means trying to bring closure to families, including the Breen and Buchanan families. It also means ensuring the past does not become an obstacle for the future. The key is that we proceed in as therapeutic a way as possible. Of course, there are hard questions to be answered and people need to step up to the plate in dealing with all of these matters. I very much look forward to the debate and hope it will eventually be carried out in a rational way, as I requested of the Taoiseach a few weeks ago.

I want to ask the Tánaiste about a matter about which we have spoken many times. Sinn Féin has been proposing that an international agency be brought in to facilitate a truth and recovery process that is victim centred and examines all of these matters. The Government clearly could not set it up, nor could the British Government, republicans or Unionists. Will the Government at least explore the possibility, as opposed to allowing for the drip-feed trauma created every time there is an inquiry, inquest or tribunal? We should deal with all of this as best we can by bringing in an independent international dimension. We would not be where we are in the peace process – Richard Haass is an international diplomat - if we had not brought in the international community to help us. Here is another case that is crying out for such an approach. Clearly, we would not be in the peace process we are in had we relied on successive Governments, including that led by the party to my left.

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