What does that say about attitudes, values and sympathy when, on a specific case, a public representative – most people who knew him in the Seanad and the Dáil knew him to be a man of considerable passion and conviction – had to go through a series of hoops to deal with an incident from 30 or 40 years ago? The problem seems to be that every institution in the State, in confronting this horrible part of our history, has tried to delay, obfuscate and confuse people. We finally took our courage in our hands and I commend the Taoiseach on his eloquent, unequivocal apology on behalf of all of us. He was not just speaking for the Government but for the people of the country in general. Once that happened, as we all know with any sincere apology, the immediate follow-up had to be generous, efficient and consistent with the spirit of the apology. Without rehearsing all of the details, Ms Justice Laffoy had to reprimand the Department on numerous occasions for its slowness and her request for additional resources was dealt with equivocally, at the least, and was delayed. That request was subjected to reviews and reports with which she felt she was not properly involved. The immediate and unequivocal conclusion one comes to is that somewhere in the system there is a lack of the precise qualities needed to deal with an issue like this – qualities of generosity, understanding and a belief that the issue is important.