On 5 February 1992, the UDA murdered five nationalists and wounded another nine in the Sean Graham bookmaker shop on the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast. Two men wearing boiler suits and balaclavas pumped 44 bullets into the victims. The names of the five Catholic men and boys were: Christy Doherty, aged 52; Jack Duffin, aged 66; James Kennedy, aged 15; Peter Magee, aged 18; and William McManus, aged 54. The police ombudsman for the North yesterday released another shocking report. There has been a litany of reports. She detailed the murder of 11 Catholics by loyalists with the assistance of the British military. Her report also investigates the murders of Harry Conlon, Aidan Wallace, Michael Gilbride, Martin Moran, Theresa Clinton and Larry Brennan and the attempted murder of Samuel Caskey in 1990.

The RUC special branch had informers who were directly involved in these murders. Informants employed by the special branch were murdering Catholics throughout the North at that moment in time. A police gun was in the hands of loyalists who were involved in these murders. The ombudsman identified eight British informants linked to the murder or attempted murder of 27 people. The RUC destroyed files. It failed to investigate CCTV footage. It failed to search the houses of suspects. It failed to carry out forensics on blood. It failed to test a getaway car for gunshot residue. These reports come just a few weeks after another report by the ombudsman that was released on similar murders on the north coast, in Derry and Antrim. The police ombudsman has 400 such requests in her in-tray at the moment. Those are 400 requests relating to British state collusion in the murder of citizens. These were citizens of a state murdered by the same state. They were Irish people murdered by the British military in Ireland. It is not ancient history. This is in our lifetime. The perpetrators of these murders live in the same towns and villages as the families of the dead loved ones. Some of those securocrats still work within the security forces. Some of them have actually been promoted as a result of their activities. In many cases, the PSNI knows who carried out these murders but there seems to be no effort to seek proper convictions.

The British Government is a signatory to the Good Friday Agreement and the Stormont House Agreement. These are international agreements. The British Government has international responsibilities to justice. I am asking the Taoiseach to use every single tool, including our position in the UN, to make sure there is an international investigation into murders by the British state in Ireland. I am appealing also to the Government to look at the creation of a historical inquiries team on this side of the Border, in a similar fashion to the Smithwick tribunal, to take evidence from people from the North and to try to get to the heart of what happened to these people and to ensure there is justice.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. This report from the police ombudsman is a very significant one. It is a deeply disturbing report and, as the Deputy stated, the second such report in a matter of weeks. Examining those attacks, in particular that in south Belfast in Sean Graham bookmakers, resulting in many murders and one attempted murder, it has found very strong evidence of investigative and intelligence failures and collusive behaviours by the RUC as defined by the ombudsman, including the continued unjustifiable use of informants involved in serious criminality and murder and, crucially and unacceptably, the return of weapons to loyalist paramilitaries. What has been presented in the report of the ombudsman is simply appalling.

I did say yesterday in the House that I met several victims' groups last week, Relatives for Justice being one. Among that group was Mark Sykes, who was there in the bookmakers and was shot. It was very emotional for him to have to recount, 30 years on, what happened to him and what he witnessed and how long he has had to campaign to get this report of the ombudsman published. The predecessor to the current ombudsman was working on this for quite some years as well. As the Deputy is aware, he is a survivor of the Sean Graham bookmakers attack. I was grateful to him for talking me through his experiences even though it was very difficult for him. I also spoke to other victims of other atrocities as well last week.

What it does bring home in the first instance is that we do need a comprehensive and agreed framework to deal with the painful legacy of our past. We have had the Stormont House Agreement and other agreements and the British Government does need to adhere to agreements it entered into in the context of the Good Friday Agreement and in the context of legacy. I have made this point to the British Prime Minister and we have made this point consistently to the British Government that legacy is important in terms of the overall architecture of the Good Friday Agreement and the need to follow through on it. There has been too much foot-dragging regarding agreements that have been entered into.

The Deputy referenced the Smithwick inquiry. The Irish Government fulfilled its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements, around legacy. Anything we were asked to do, we did. We stand ready. I have said this to other groups and victims and political representatives of other victims who feel they have not got full closure or have not got prosecutions in respect of their loved ones who were murdered and they would allege collusion in the Republic. I said to come and meet us and that if we have any information, we will provide it as a State because we believe that is our obligation.

Ten days ago the Taoiseach laid a wreath at the Bloody Sunday Memorial in Derry. At the time and since then the Taoiseach has indicated the families of those who were lost, who were murdered, on Bloody Sunday need to find justice. We are looking at the likelihood that there is going to be an amnesty. If there is an amnesty in the North of Ireland, it means there is no rule of law and that the perpetrators will get away with murder.

I attended the 50th anniversary of the Ballymurphy massacre, and speaker after speaker got up on the trailer that day and said the British Government quite simply wants to get away with murder. That is what is happening here.

Over recent debates in which I have participated, I have made an effort to name every single victim of the Bloody Sunday massacre, the Ballymurphy massacre, the Springhill massacre, the murders that were researched in Operation Greenwich and those today in the Ombudsman’s report. Is it not shocking that we know the names of the people who lost their lives, the people who were murdered, but we do not know the names of the people who perpetrated those murders. Most people, for example, would not know Lance Corporal David James Cleary, better known as Soldier F, who is accused of murdering civilians on Bloody Sunday. Most people would not know the alphabet of British Army perpetrators of murder. We need to ensure people know their names. The Taoiseach has recounted what has happened, but I am asking him what steps will he take to ensure those names are known throughout the country for the murders they have committed.

In the first instance, I have told the Deputy what we are doing. I do not agree with the amnesty at all and I do not take it as a likelihood. The Irish Government has entered into discussions with the British Government and all of the parties in Northern Ireland in respect of the proposals that emanated from the British Government last year. We have made it very clear we do not accept any unilateral actions in respect of legacy that would represent a breach of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements.

What is the cost to Britain?

First of all, proposals were made that cannot be accepted. We have opposed them and have made it very clear to the British Government that there can be an amnesty for nobody. State forces and governments have a higher moral order in how they conduct themselves, as does the government in any state. Equally, no paramilitaries should have an amnesty either in respect of heinous crimes and murders that were committed against very many people.

The Deputy is correct in saying people want closure, details and to find out what happened to their loved ones and who killed them. Some, such as the two victims groups I met last week, know who killed their loved ones, but they want further information to establish if that could have been prevented, for example, and whether further preventative actions could have taken place with the use of informants, collusion and so on.