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

My party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, has covered very extensively and comprehensively the issues we want to see addressed in the current round of talks. I have just come from a meeting of the foreign affairs committee, which heard a presentation from the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation. As we all know, the centre has provided a safe space for people from different traditions to negotiate, have dialogue, talk about moving forward and get away from the era of the Troubles. It is very important that the legacy issues are given very detailed consideration. I hope progress can be achieved in dealing with them. I represent a constituency that unfortunately suffered death and destruction as a result of the Troubles north of the Border predominantly. There was the loss of life in a bombing in Belturbet. The Dublin–Monaghan bombings impacted my constituency also. The families who have been bereaved or lost loved ones and some of the victims who survived say they are all getting older. Some say they lost a sibling, parent, son or daughter but that they are no nearer to getting justice. Many say to me they want to see some justice before they go to their eternal reward. We have to achieve progress in dealing with the legacy issue. It is a very important ingredient in ensuring a peace process that deals with the issues of the past and removes the pain and anxiety to some extent. For those who have lost loved ones, there will never be closure just by getting the truth but it is an important issue to address. It needs to be dealt with comprehensively and not sidelined.

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