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

I presume that, in all meetings with members of the British Government or Northern Ireland Executive, legacy issues are discussed. A message needs to be clearly and repeatedly given to the British Government concerning its proposal to introduce an amnesty for murderers, be they members of the state forces or of paramilitary organisations, some who masqueraded as republicans and others who masqueraded as loyalists.

Under no circumstances should such persons be given an amnesty for committing heinous crimes that, in many instances, included murder. It is very important for that message to be repeated to the British Government.

As the Taoiseach knows, it is approaching half a century since some of those crimes were carried out. Next December will mark the 50th anniversary of the murder of two teenagers in Belturbet, County Cavan, by a bomb that was brought across the Border from County Fermanagh. Nobody has ever been brought to justice for that. In two years my own constituency will mark the desperate atrocities that happened in Dublin and Monaghan in May 1974 and still nobody has been brought to justice. There has been a complete lack of recognition by the British Government over the years of the need to give full co-operation and conduct full and thorough investigations into those desperate atrocities. People have campaigned for decades to get the truth and they want to see the truth established. We all know that every day that goes by means it will be more difficult. Particular emphasis needs to be put on the need to get progress with regard to legacy issues.

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