Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

It could well be but maybe not. If three people had been selected in Northern Ireland and I said I wanted one I would have been beaten around these Houses for doing the opposite of what I am now doing.

I have listened carefully to the debate and have substantially amended the proposal. There is an argument for involving more than one person. I also believe there is an argument for having a person who is visibly identified with the process. The compromise we have is a good one on that front.

The question was asked whether this is to be a retrospective body with power to investigate the disappearance of Shergar and so on. The ombudsman commission, generally speaking, will not go back over history. The bulk of complaints will be contemporary, rather than retrospective and there is a strict time limit which can be extended in certain circumstances provided for in the legislation. There are provisions in section 102(4) and 102(5) which would, in certain circumstances, allow investigations that are not time limited and, in principle, would allow retrospective investigations.

I need a police force functioning to the highest possible standards. I am somewhat mystified at times by the amount of exhumation of grievances in Northern Ireland going back over ten, 15 or 20 years. This is a one-sided process because it is claimed almost insatiably that some issues should be retrospectively investigated to find out whether there was collusion with policemen.

The process agreed in Weston Park exists and I am not trying to go behind it. It is ironic, however, to put it mildly, that nobody will ever investigate the incident in which ten or 11 Protestant workers were removed from a bus and machine-gunned at Kingsmills. No one will ever ask who did that. No one will ever hold an inquiry and demand the truth.