Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome this opportunity to make statements on the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights on the violent incidents arising from conflict in Northern Ireland. A good context in which to put this debate is the acknowledgement in the Good Friday Agreement that: "We must never forget those who have died or have been injured, and their families." I hope this debate will give some consolation to the families of the deceased that they have not been forgotten.

As my colleague, Senator Dan Boyle, has spoken on the issue, I will focus on the issue of collusion because there is great concern that this issue is not being dealt with adequately and that this debate does not contain a specific reference to collusion. It is incumbent on the Government to put pressure on the British Government and to use all the opportunities available to it to encourage that government to examine the findings of the Barron report, the report of the Oireachtas sub-committee and the report from the MacEntee inquiry, and to encourage the British Government to address the issues raised by these reports, including full disclosure of information as highlighted by Mr. Justice Barron. A significant number of the 3,700 murders remain unsolved and families on both sides of the Border still have no explanation why their loved ones were taken from them. It is clear that justice needs to be served.

Victims' groups, including Justice for the Forgotten, have proposed different approaches to deal with the past. One recent constructive proposal was a call by a consortium of groups for the establishment of a truth commission. This approach was advocated previously by the Green Party and it is being considered by the Consultative Group on the Past. This group will report back to the British Government in June and I hope its recommendations deal adequately with all aspects of the atrocities in questions.

The victims' groups recent call was for an international, independent truth commission. Other speakers have mentioned the importance of a commission such as this being established. Its purpose would be to find a way to deal with the legacy of more than 30 years of conflict. The commission should deal with truth recovery, should examine truth commissions elsewhere and how they worked, and should agree core principles and values that would be required as part of a truth commission in this country.

Speaking on behalf of the groups involved in this consortium, Ms Margaret Urwin stated:

The focus of such a commission should be on truth and acknowledgement rather than prosecutions. The criminal justice system has frustrated rather than facilitated access to the truth. All combatant groups, British, republican and loyalist should co-operate in good faith and have a moral duty to do so.

The organisations representing victims of this conflict which supported this call believe that the current investigatory, prosecutorial and judicial arrangements offer no realistic prospect of truth recovery for bereaved families. They have called for the following motion to be supported by both Houses of the Oireachtas:

That this House

endorses and approves the interim and final reports of the sub-committee of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights on the report of the independent commission of inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan Bombing and the three related Barron Reports, including the Inquiry into the Bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk,

calls upon the Ceann Comhairle to formally inform the Speaker of the House of Commons of the UK of the passage of the resolution and to send copies of the relevant reports and other documents, with a request that the matter be considered by the members of that House,

requests the Ceann Comhairle to call upon the British Government, as an initial step and as a sign of good faith in dealing with the legacy of the conflict, to provide access to all the original documents relating to the atrocities that occurred in this jurisdiction, in particular the Dublin-Monaghan Bombing of 1974 which killed 32 Irish citizens, a French and an Italian citizen.

This is a reasonable call by the families and groups representing the victims. The motion should be uncontroversial. If both Houses of the Oireachtas would agree to do so, we should move ahead with this. The families of the victims have identified the need for the British Government, in particular the House of Commons, to be called upon to consider the matter and pass the resolution. This is an issue that will not go away. It has been debated in the Dáil and the Seanad, but that will not resolve what happened in the past or deal with the legacy of the 30 years of conflict unless it is taken a step further. There is much good will in both Houses of the Oireachtas towards the families of victims of the violence in Northern Ireland of the past 30 years, but there is only so much we can do.

The results of the Barron report were welcome and point to interesting information that must be taken on board by the British Government. I hope that having debated the issue fully today, we will consider supporting the kind of motion that has been drafted by the group representing the victims of the atrocities in the North. I hope too that we will call on the Ceann Comhairle to forward copies of that motion to the House of Commons and ask the British Government to provide access to the original documents. This is important in terms of putting this issue to bed. Unless this is done, we will find ourselves debating the issue again. The families and relatives are right not to let the issue go as there has not been proper closure on it. In order to have closure, we need to take the matter further and use our diplomatic and other powers to try and involve the British Government in the way the families feel it needs to be involved so that it will take the kind of action that will help.

The establishment of the truth commission with an international composition is important. Other countries look to Ireland because of the conflict that existed in the North for so long and we are seen as having certain expertise and insights into situations of serious conflict from which other conflict zones can benefit. How we find closure on the issue of the bombings in Monaghan and other situations of violence and conflict in Northern Ireland will be used as a template by other parties involved in situations of conflict around the world.

It is important we get closure on this. The recommendations I have made are important in this regard, namely, the setting up of the truth commission and the agreeing of a motion by both Houses of the Oireachtas with the request to the Ceann Comhairle that it be forwarded to the House of Commons seeking the British Government's co-operation in this matter. There should be little difficulty getting cross-party support for these recommendations. It is important we are seen to have a clear outcome from the recent debate in the Dáil and our debate here. I will finish by stressing the importance of moving this forward and taking further action.