Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for providing us with the opportunity to raise the issue six years from the date on which the Oireachtas agreed the all-party motion. Deputies Smith, Crowe, Pringle, Finian McGrath and I are all on the cross-party group working with Justice for the Forgotten in this area and we agreed to submit this Topical Issue today to mark that anniversary. It is also 40 years since 34 families had their lives destroyed. A lifetime later, they continue to live with the physical legacy as well as the psychological side of it. It is unprecedented when one considers the huge improvement in relations in the last number of years that the Government of the UK continues to deny access to necessary information. The families and the Justice for the Forgotten group put forward a proposal that a mediator would assist, which was not accepted, and every effort has been made on this side to come to a position where the information can be shared and made available. As an Oireachtas we must unite in both Houses in calling on the British Government to get its act together on this, respect the families and the lives that were lost by providing information that may give answers. At the very least, it would bring people down a path.

A further issue is that the compensation paid to the families covers physical injuries only. I understand the Minister is in correspondence with the families on that. The Minister is restricted in terms of the definition of the compensation, but the families cannot get funding for counselling for psychological conditions arising from the effects of the bombings, including PTSD. It is an area we must examine as the psychological scars, while not visible, are as raw and sore as the physical ones. It is an old way of looking at mental health. We do not want to look at it. This would be a way to assist the families and we should address it as well.

The main issue for today is that once again, six years on, the Oireachtas unites to call on the British Government to do the right thing.

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