As the Minister is aware, we fully support what the legislation we are discussing here today is trying to achieve, which is to form a situation where the State can co-operate fully with the Omagh inquiry to ensure there is a complete transparency around what happened in Omagh. I remember that incident very well. In my home area of Cloone, County Leitrim, we were commemorating 200 years since the French came through it in 1798. There was a weekend of commemorative events but there was this shadow over it because of what happened in Omagh and the terrible tragedy of the many people who lost their lives in the most tragic of circumstances. At that time, we, as a society, were trying to move to a peaceful process and to move forward. Thankfully, the peace process was strong enough to withstand what happened in Omagh and the many other incidents similar to it. What we are dealing with here today is very clearly a situation where we need to ensure we get maximum co-operation from the State in every way possible. The Minister mentioned the process that is set out and how that process will work. He mentioned how there will be a judiciary overseeing all of this and that this will be done in a transparent and clear way. The Minister also mentioned that in section 5, there are some robust checks in regard to a possible non-acceptance of a request. I would hope that would not come to pass, and I am sure that is the Minister's position. I hope we would not see any prospect of any section of the State refusing to co-operate in any way with this process. The families of those who lost their lives on that day and those who were injured deserve to get full co-operation from this State and from everyone involved that can possibly throw any light on this subject. At the time, I remember the RUC chief constable, Ronnie Flanagan, said he was putting a special task force in place to assist the local RUC to investigate the situation in Omagh. There are very many who doubt what the role of that was and how it was facilitated, if it actually assisted or if it was an obstacle in trying to resolve the situation and to have a full and complete investigation. However, we are where we are. We have a robust inquiry in place, and we have to ensure the State responds to it adequately. As we in this State put processes in place to ensure there is an adequate and robust response to the request from the Omagh inquiry to get full and accurate information of everything this State knows about what happened with that atrocity, we also have to look at what the British state has done with regard to similar situations and how there has been a huge reluctance in the British state to provide information. The Dublin and Monaghan bombings were mentioned, and there are many other instances similar to that, where there are families who want to get answers, clarity and transparency as to what happened and how the circumstances came about where they lost their loved ones. All of us have a responsibility to try to do everything we possibly can to ensure that happens. In particular, the sovereign state, whether it is the British State or the Irish State, has a unique and central role in ensuring that full transparency is delivered to everybody in respect of that. While we, of course, want to see the full rigour of the inquiry brought to bear on all of this, it is probably a year since a memorandum of understanding was set in place, and we are now following through with this legislation. The Minister will have the full support of everyone in the Houses to deliver this and ensure it is in place before the inquiry comes back into session in September. I fully support what is being done here. All of us commend the families of the victims of Omagh, and the many other families who are also looking for justice and transparency in regard to all of this. There is some difficulty with part of the legislation. For instance, if a set of questions is put forward by the inquiry, and those questions are answered and then generate other questions, it has to go back over the same process again. Perhaps more space needs to be made for cross-examination, or if that is not the right term, then we must ensure there is a full means of assessing the outcome of a particular piece of information if it creates other questions. That can be done without having to revert to the beginning of the entire process. There needs to be a way of ensuring that can happen. It is one of the concerns that representatives of the families have regarding the legislation. In general, we are all on the same page. We want to ensure that this is delivered, and that the families of those who tragically lost their lives in Omagh, the victims and the survivors, get a sense that this State is going to co-operate fully. That will put further pressure on the authorities in the North to ensure they also co-operate and provide the information that is required.

Sentiment score: 0.22