Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to Senator Mullen for sharing time with me. I had intended to indicate some disagreement with the motion, but when I read the terms of the motion I decided not to do so and not to call a division on it. I wish to put some matters on the record. There is a danger that in adopting a unanimous approach, we forget the points that Senator McGreehan has made and we forget some salient facts. Every serious criminal offence committed in Northern Ireland is also an offence against the criminal law of this State since 1976. As part of the Good Friday Agreement and its implementation, the Government, of which I was Attorney General and later Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, agreed that An Garda Síochána would not investigate historical crimes committed by members of the provisional movement anywhere on this island and it has not done so. I do not believe I have deprived anybody of their civil rights or whatever by sticking to that proposition; that was part of the deal that was done.

I would say, without being rancorous in any way, Senator Ó Donnghaile has given us a series of very graphic accounts of particular massacres and other crimes that happened. Let us have it on the record of this House that the leadership of Sinn Féin came to the two governments, the Blair Government and the Ahern Government and asked for pardons for their members for the offences they had committed. They asked for criminal immunity. They got from the British Government letters of comfort, but the Southern Government took the view that there would be a decision not to prosecute. I wanted to put that on the record. Anybody who comes in here and says there must be untrammelled, retrospective investigation of criminal offences should remember the people who came on their knees to the Government demanding letters of comfort and demanding pardons for the members of their movement.

This is not simply a piece of old history. In recent weeks Members of the Oireachtas have actually stated that activities by IRA volunteers are not crimes at all. We cannot have it every way. We cannot say that one side's crimes must be prosecuted whereas the other side may wave their letters of comfort and can ignore the fact that their political leaders in Sinn Féin sought immunity from criminal prosecution.

I want to put one more thing on the record. This evening we have heard a series of harrowing examples of criminality in Northern Ireland. There are many other people, including the Breen and Buchanan families. The present Garda commissioner, Drew Harris, lost his father. There was Lord Justice Gibson and his family. We will never get a full explanation of what happened to them through the criminal process because those people who know what happened to them would be punished within their own organisation were they to go near the PSNI or the Garda Síochána to reveal the truth.

On this occasion, I will support Senator Currie's motion, but I want a little bit of fundamental honesty. This State took a view on criminal prosecutions and nobody objected to it. Sinn Féin demanded immunity for IRA members for crimes they committed and got their letters of comfort. They should not come into this House and say that they are demanding a similar rule of law for everyone. They got their letters of comfort and they never rejected them.

I will end on this point. We will never find the truth about Stakeknife, Freddie Scappaticci. We will never be told the truth, either by MI5 or by the provisional leadership. We will never find the truth about that because there is too much to lose politically on both sides in telling us what the truth is. On this occasion I want to put firmly on the record that we can masquerade in public as demanding that everybody be criminally liable no matter how long ago they committed their offences. Those people, who came on their bended knees to the Government and demanded immunity for their members as part of the Good Friday Agreement, got their letters of comfort and got the Southern Government to agree to no further prosecutions. Those people should be the last to be heard on this matter.