Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am firmly in support of this motion and thank my Seanad colleagues for bringing it forward. I thank the Minister and Taoiseach for their support, and appreciate the cross-party support North and South. I want to recognise John Finucane, MP as well. I cannot see him but know that he is there.

Pat Finucane was murdered by the UDA on 12 February 1989 in front of his family and three children. I was ten years old at the time. His murder fits into the backdrop of my childhood and other senseless loss of life that would bring heartache to a loving family. No-one should deny the Finucane family or any family the justice or truth that they seek. I recognise the Finucane family's dignity in the face of endless and unjustifiable delay.

A full independent public inquiry is the only credible and only acceptable answer. Commitments were made at Weston Park close to 20 years ago and the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, confirmed that there were shocking levels of collusion. In February 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the British Government had failed to deliver on Article 2 on the European Convention on Human Rights into the murder of Mr. Finucane. Lord Stevens, who was appointed in 1989 to investigate collusion between the British State and loyalists, told the BBC as recently as October 2019 that there is more intelligence and documentation that he was never told about that may well take this story further. If it does then that needs to be exposed. The longer this issue goes on, the more the truth needs to come out, not just for the Finucane family but for all victims.

I wish to repeat my dismay and disappointment at the unilateral move by the British Government to renege on the commitments to legacy and reconciliation in the Stormont House Agreement. These commitments were only reconfirmed in the New Decade, New Approach agreement reached last year. The principles that underpinned the Stormont House Agreement must be protected, and I welcome what the Minister said about that tonight. The written ministerial statement in March of this year is not about victims first and reconciliation, which has become a phrase that we are all too familiar with. All agreements should be honoured.

I wish to recognise what Senator Gallagher said about Columba McVeigh, who came from the village that I am from in County Tyrone. Columba's mother died not knowing what happened to her son and he remains one of the disappeared. The pain of the McVeigh family, the Finucane family and too many other families is all of our pain until the truth comes out.