Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the past, everybody has expressed their disappointment that full agreement was not reached on these matters. That disappointment is shared by us in Sinn Féin.

Let us put on the record the cause of the failure because there was agreement on the mechanisms for truth recovery and to afford some level of closure and comfort for victims and survivors, irrespective of the community from which they come. That agreement was there and then in comes the British Administration with concerns, it said, around national security. Actually, it had nothing whatsoever to do with national security and everything to do with the ongoing refusal of the British Government and the British system to disclose, tell the truth and give the information that families from across the community require to establish what happened to their loved ones. That is a matter of disgrace on the part of the British Government. Dublin and all of us elected here need to take a much firmer line and much more vocal approach in saying that loud and clear.

Previous speakers have said that things happen in the North that would not happen in a properly functioning state. I could not agree more. I remind those Members that the North is not a properly functioning state.

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