Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I raised issues in our previous discussion on Northern Ireland a week or more ago. Does the Minister agree that we need to deal with them with the utmost urgency? We do not want the atmosphere to be poisoned even more and people to continue to be disappointed. Does the Minister have in mind a timeframe in which he could envisage some progress being made on these issues? We should all be conscious that we are moving into electoral cycles in the North and the South and we know that this atmosphere does not help in moving sensitive and perhaps difficult political issues forward. I appeal to the Minister to continue to attach the utmost urgency to these issues. He mentioned meeting representative groups. Justice for the Forgotten which has been advocating on behalf of victims and survivors of many atrocities committed in the North and the South would value another meeting on what happened in Dublin, Monaghan, Belturbet and other atrocities committed in the North and the South. I hope the Minister will accede to the request for a meeting with the group at an early date.

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