I am raising an issue of great importance today because I was contacted directly by victims yesterday and this morning regarding a story printed yesterday by Allison Morris in the Irish News. I am calling for an urgent debate on the matter. The story states that the IRA broke into Special Branch headquarters in 2001 and stole thousands of documents, which it decoded. It discovered its commander in north Belfast was an informer and that certain information was known to intelligence services in advance of the Shankill bomb. I know the identity of this man but I will not name him here. The news is all the more shocking because it demonstrates the republican movement concealed this information for 15 years - since 2001 - while all the time highlighting collusion within the loyalist community.

Two children were murdered in the Shankill bombing, with seven other innocent people and an IRA man. All these families deserve the truth. In addition, while the IRA commander was ordering murder and mayhem from 1991 to 2001, 68 people were murdered in north Belfast. The British were also running intelligence agents in the Shankill area and the majority of those murdered were innocent people. Serious questions need to be asked. I did not hear one statement from anyone within Sinn Féin or the main Unionist parties yesterday. Furthermore, this information shows that the IRA knew since 2001 that Denis Donaldson was an informer, yet he continued his position as a senior Sinn Féin member working in Stormont right up until 2005. Why would Sinn Féin allow an intelligence agent to continue to act as the public face of its offices while knowing this information?

Is the Senator looking for a debate on this issue?

I am looking for an urgent debate on the issue. The victims who are the most affected are always at the bottom of the pile when it comes to action. People with broken hearts and broken minds are living with the legacy of grief to this day. There are people who can put a stop to it, but they will not because self-preservation and political expedience are more lucrative for them.

I will finish on this point. It is traumatic, sick torture for the families concerned to be denied answers but worse when they discover the truth has been deliberately withheld from them. With the greatest of respect to the Leader, I do not want to hear any more waffle about truth recovery processes. The reality is that neither Sinn Féin, the British Government, the current republican or loyalist paramilitaries or past loyalist paramilitaries are capable of telling the truth. They are instead delaying and waiting on relatives to die in the hope that the issue will go away. It will not go away. Nothing short of an inquiry for all actions during the Troubles, including present actions, will suffice.

The Senator is way over time.

The Government is a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and should exercise its responsibility in this regard and hold to account those who blatantly abdicate their responsibilities.