Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the apology of the Minister in his contribution. I thank him for his fulsome apology and I hope it gets into the public domain because it is important that we send out the message. I wish to acknowledge that the Minister is initiating the review and the ceremonies he proposes to hold in the autumn.

I wish to acknowledge the work of the former Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe. He recommended to Cabinet the presentation of An Bonn Jadotville and was the first Minister of State to do so. He presented the medals to those who served in Jadotville. I wish to acknowledge the good work of the former Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, in that regard.

I have spoken to some men today and I will come to that. No criticism of today's report is aimed at Colonel Pat Quinlan and there is no implied or explicit criticism of him. I salute the fact that the Cathaoirleach brought the names of the veterans into the roll of honour of the Seanad. That was great. I wish to acknowledge the pioneering work of Senator Craughwell in this area and his real, emotional, genuine and cerebral commitment.The review group was considering giving distinguished service medals to 33 personnel and military medals for gallantry to five. Those people held out for five days between 13 and 17 September 1961. They only surrendered when overwhelming odds made anything else a suicide mission. That should never be off the record. I share the disappointment of my colleagues at the outcome. Commandant Pat Quinlan recommended the awarding of medals. The veterans of Jadotville have been viewed in a certain way in some circles for many years. They have been looked at ignominiously. They suffered pain and there have been suicides and issues with alcohol, and many other problems have arisen. This is certainly not a political issue. It is a bad situation.

A distinguished member of my local community, Quartermaster Sergeant Sean Gregory, was in the field of operations at that time and was policing the airport at the time of the Jadotville siege. He has testified to me and others about his recollection of the bad treatment of the men, particularly when they come home and since. He had been on three peacekeeping trips. He was in the area of operations, was a distinguished officer and knew what happened. He said the way those veterans were treated was disgraceful. There was a lot of collateral damage.

I hope that the welfare recommendations, at a minimum, are adhered to. I hope we do that welfare bit. I hope the Minister's letter is strong in its response to the disgraceful insinuations about the motivation of political people from county councils and the Houses of the Oireachtas. Those insinuations are beyond contempt for publicly paid people. It is a sinister type of thing. Senator McGahon brought up that matter earlier.

I fundamentally hope we will have good ceremonies in September. I hope we will do the welfare bit in a good, big and wholesome way. I hope the Minister will intervene to make sure that happens. I would like to hear him say that he will ensure that will happen. It is regrettable that the report has not recommended the distinguished service medals. I personally regret, as we all do. It is a sad outcome. However, we will hold these people and their families as heroes. It is great that the Minister apologised to them. I should apologise to them and do, as we all should. What happened to these heroes and their families was disgraceful. It is one of the great shames of our history. It is a shocking indictment of the country that people could be treated like this. Those people were unable to do anything other than they did unless they were to commit hara-kiri or collective suicide.