Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We need to be very careful in discussing the issue raised by Senator Humphreys given there is an ongoing court case concerning a lottery claim. My understanding, having sold many lottery tickets over the years in my former role as a retailer, is that people are advised to sign the back of their ticket after purchase. When the national lottery pays out on a win, payment goes to the persons who signed the ticket. If a ticket is presented that has been signed by a number of people, it is deemed that they will share in the prize. A syndicate is really only a word for a number of people claiming the one prize. However, I take the Senator's point on board and it is important we have clarification on this matter.

Recent reports by the BBC and Channel 4 and other media regarding the practice of waterboarding by the British Government in Northern Ireland in the 1970s are a cause for serious concern. We have had a great deal of reconciliation and progress as a result of the peace process in the past ten or 15 years but the whole situation is still in its infancy and we have a long way to go in terms of building reconciliation in the North. I encourage the Government to do even more to facilitate, engage with and develop the processes of reconciliation. The British Government, meanwhile, has a responsibility to order an inquiry into the very serious and credible allegations regarding waterboarding and other torture methods used in 1972 against a 17 year old. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Taoiseach must raise this issue with the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr. Brokenshire, and the Prime Minister, Ms May. It is the only fair way to proceed.

I tabled a motion in the House last week, which was very well received, one aspect of which was the recognition that we cannot move forward unless we understand and acknowledge the wrongs of the past and the good that happened in the past. To move forward with a sense of confidence and ambition for Northern Ireland and the island as a whole, an ambition we all share, we must understand and acknowledge what happened in the past, on all sides, bad as some of it was. It is incumbent on the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and the Taoiseach to raise this matter with people at the highest possible levels in the British Government.