Dan Boyle (Green Party)

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Belfast on the occasion of the annual conference of the Green Party in Northern Ireland. The Green Party in Northern Ireland is a regional council of the Green Party on this island. We are one of only two political parties that operate on an all-island basis. Not only are we represented in both Houses of the Oireachtas but we are also represented in the legislative Assembly in the North.

The visit was an opportunity for me to get a feel for life in Northern Ireland and express a note of regret that it was one of all too infrequent visits I make to that part of this island. I felt the post-conflict Belfast is more comfortable with itself and a place where the normalisation process, while not complete, is ongoing and has also assisted to define a sense of confidence that has been lacking in the past because of the nature of the conflict which, while we refer to it as occurring on that side of the island, also spilled over into sections of this part of the island. We must acknowledge that when addressing the issue of collusion and the various committees that have attempted to make sense of the issue and bring finality to it.

I arrived in Belfast on Friday to visit my colleagues in Stormont. It was my first visit to the facility and I found it to be an impressive building. I visited both Chambers of what had been the Parliament of Northern Ireland. While I was young when Stormont was first discontinued in 1972 I must profess to an ignorance of the Northern Ireland Senate. While most people would be aware that one of the effects of the conflict in Northern Ireland was the murder while in office of a Member of this House, Senator Billy Fox, I was not aware of similar murders of two members of the Northern Ireland Senate, Senators Jack Barnwell and Paddy Wilson, which are acknowledged by way of a plaque. That was part of the catalogue of horrific events with which we have had to live on this island for the past decades which I hope the processes and procedures that followed the Good Friday Agreement are starting to put to rights. One of the overhanging issues is the lack of finality, the lack of information that those who suffered tragic events such as senseless killings have had to endure. Collusion is a large shadow over that.

Earlier contributions have acknowledged that collusion was a two sided street. This State and agencies representing the State must answer questions and provide information. If the ongoing debate on collusion reveals this information, it will assist the process. After the Barron report, which concentrated on a number of events, the report of the Oireachtas sub-committee and the MacEntee report we must decide on the mechanism needed to bring finality to these issues.

In South Africa the truth commission was the mechanism used. Victims' rights groups on this island have advocated this as a possible mechanism to be considered. I personally support it but recognise the difficulties involved. Because we are in a post-conflict situation, and mechanisms were set up by the Good Friday Agreement, the degree of justice that can be attained will be compromised. That is the nature of the agreement reached by all sectors. If justice is not fully served by the conviction and imprisonment of those involved in horrendous acts, we should expect that the information pertaining to those acts be given full exposure. That was the value of the truth commission in South Africa. There was no expectation of a court or prison process following the information becoming available. How we will come to finality on the issue of collusion, how we get this information to the public and how the victims and family members of these circumstances can feel at peace has been left too vague and inconclusive. Although it is good to air the debate I regret that, following the debate in Dáil Éireann, we lack a mechanism in the form of a motion to progress it. In having this debate we must think towards an end to the process rather than its continuation. I have put forward my support for a truth commission and I believe it would have widespread support but I acknowledge the difficulties involved. If such a process were established, the type of information that would emerge, the degree of hurt and wounds that would be reopened would be difficult for us to handle on all parts of this island. Most of the political reluctance exists because of the question about whether we really need this and whether we can handle it. If we are to move on and put behind us a prolonged history of political violence, it is a thorn to be grasped. We must put up for scrutiny the hidden part of our history. Until we do so there will be far too many unanswered questions and far too many unfulfilled people in terms of how and why they lost their loved ones. I hope the political system can devise the means for that to happen soon, in co-operation with all political forces on this island.